Harry Potter and the Essence of Pure Magic
by That Idiot
Summary: As Sixth Year begins, Harry finds himself coping with Sirius's death, and searching for the "Power The Dark Lord Knows Not". A year of adventure, as he discovers the essence of pure magic, learns important life lessons, screws up and has some fun.
1. Chapter 1 Redux

First chapter redone. I'll explain in the last one, if people start reading from this one. T'was a bitch of a past few months...

* * *

The middle of summer. The turning point between the end of one school year and the beginning of another. The summer had been a hot one in England, a heat-wave again beating down on the country leaving behind scorching days which withered lawns everywhere brown. The nights came as a welcome relief, the temperature dropping to a much more comfortable level, allowing people to sleep well in their beds. Well, most people that is.

A small house on Privet Drive, in the suburb of Little Whinging, located in Surrey, was home to four people. Vernon Dursley, a manager at the drill firm Grunnings, his wife Petunia Dursley nee Evans, housewife, and their son Dudley Dursley, Junior Heavyweight Inter-school Boxing Champion of the Southeast. The fourth person was barely ever acknowledged, let alone mentioned, by the rest of the house. Indeed, he was commonly believed to spend most of the year at a school known as St. Brutus School For Incurably Criminal Boys by the community. His name was Harry Potter, the orphaned son of Petunia's sister Lily Potter nee Evans and James Potter, and he spent most of the year, not at St. Brutus like his family claimed, but rather at one of the most prestigious schools for magic in the world, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he had recently completed his fifth year and would soon be entering his sixth.

That didn't quite explain why Harry was currently sitting in his bedroom, the smallest in the house, staring out the window at the stars sparkling in the night sky. It was nearly midnight, after all. Most people would be long asleep. He'd done the same thing, night after night, ever since he'd arrived back home from Hogwarts earlier that month. In previous years he was up, desperately trying to complete his school work without the Dursley's noticing, seeing as how they somewhat… disapproved of magic, even going so far as to lock his school things in the cupboard under the stairs, the small space that up until shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday had acted as his bedroom. This year, he didn't have any school work to complete, due to having just taking his OWLs, or Ordinary Wizarding Levels, and not having selected his courses for his sixth and seventh years, the NEWTs(Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests).

The only other remaining possible reason that would seem apparent to anyone without any knowledge of Harry, beyond what was just stated, would be that he was waiting for his birthday. It was July 30th. He turned sixteen tomorrow. Or in about fifteen minutes. But this also wasn't right. True, Harry had been awake every midnight before his birthday for a few years now, but this year it was different somehow. He wasn't scanning the horizon for the forms of approaching owls. He was merely looking up into the nights sky, scanning across the canvas of stars, not looking for much in particular.

No matter how he tried, his eyes kept coming back to one star. The Dog Star, as it was sometimes referred to as. Sirius. The name of his godfather. His godfather, who had died coming to Harry's rescue, because Harry had believed that _he_ needed rescuing. The image, along with the painful tugging of his heart, leapt through his mind again. Sirius, mildly insulting his cousin, the deranged Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, taunting her, only to be struck by a spell and to fall back, helpless, through the Veil in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. The look of fear and shock on his face as he toppled backwards…

Harry shook himself again. It wasn't doing him any good to keep thinking about it like that. He'd almost sent himself catatonic in the first week he'd been back at Privet Drive, his guilt continually building up and crashing in on itself. Several times he'd woken up, gasping for breath, barely stopping himself from screaming out Sirius's name, huge great sobs wracking his body. The only thing he'd manage to do for that first week had been eat and send his message to the Order of the Phoenix every third day, telling them that all was fine with him and the Dursley's. He had just lain in bed, unmoving, visiting the toilet briefly, only once changing his clothes in the whole week, when he had accidentally split his inkpot all over his shirt when sending one of the letters off to his protectors.

He'd been snapped out of that state when Remus Lupin, a friend of both Sirius and Harry's parents from Hogwarts, had come to visit him, slightly concerned with the state of the messages Harry had sent. They had been hastily scribbled down, saying little more than he was fine, and that another letter would follow in three days. Remus had guessed, and correctly to, that Harry was not coping with his godfather's death. Finding Harry in the state he did, he'd launched into a fierce telling off, which Harry still could vividly remember. After all, it wasn't often one had a concerned but annoyed werewolf telling you off.

Flashback 

"_Harry, Sirius's death is not your fault! Stop blaming it on yourself, and blame the people who actually carried out the act!" he'd said sternly. Harry had looked up blankly from his bed. Who else did Remus think was responsible? Harry had been the one to just go charging into the Department of Mysteries, he hadn't even thought of the mirror that Sirius had given him for Christmas. He didn't listen to Hermione, who had been firmly against him going there. Not only that, but he'd dragged her, along with Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna, with him into the trap that Voldemort had set for him – that in of itself being a whole new reason why it was his fault, with his refusal to learn Occlumency from Snape. He'd just as good as sent the curse at Sirius himself. Never mind the fact that it was Bellatrix who had done the deed. Harry began to speak but before he could get even one word out, Remus had interrupted him, leaning down to grip Harry's shoulder._

"_It was not your fault Harry! It was Bellatrix, it was Voldemort, they are the two at fault. Merlin, Harry, Sirius is more at fault then you! He was chafing to get out of that house, he totally disregarded the risks involved in coming to the Department. And the way he was duelling! It was practically inviting his own death! He was acting far to cocky for his own good, like he was invincible. Harry, that house drove him crazy, made him reckless. If it wasn't coming to you at the Department, I can guarantee it would have been something else. It is not your fault, cub."_

_Harry's eyes had widened at the last sentence Remus had said. He looked up at him, actually focusing on Remus's face. Harry had lost his godfather, but this man… he'd lost one of his best friends, one of the few people to stick with him when they discovered he was a werewolf, one of his best friends since he was eleven. In truth, Harry was the only thing that connected him back to those days. The only surviving friend was the traitor Wormtail, or Peter Pettigrew. Remus was the last Marauder. If Remus didn't blame Harry for Sirius's death… well, then Harry might not be as totally responsible as he felt. He knew he wasn't completely free of responsibility for his death, that there was things he could have done differently that would have kept Sirius away from the Department of Mysteries, but the whole thing did not hang over his head, on his shoulders._

_Remus was still looking at him intently, his eyes bright with concern for the boy in front of him. Harry nodded slowly. "Professor… sir… I understand. I'm still at fault, somewhere in all of this, but… it wasn't largely my own fault. I understand that…" Harry said, looking into his eyes. He reached out a hand, which Remus readily gripped. "I'm sorry, sir, for worrying you so much. And also… for playing a part in sending Sirius to his death…now, you're the last one left. That is something I never want to experience…"_

_Harry had closed his eyes and turned his head away from Remus as he finished speaking, and so was taken by surprise when he was grabbed up into a hug. He broke down almost immediately, crying for the man who they had both recently just lost. Rocking him gently while Harry sobbed into his shoulder, Remus too had tears slowly running down his face. After awhile the two separated, wiping their eyes and moving slightly apart from each other, Harry looking down the bed at his feet while Remus kept his eyes on Harry's face._

"_Well, Harry, I'm going to leave now. I wish I could stay longer, but I've got some things to do for Dumbledore today. I'll come by occasionally during the next few weeks, just to visit and check up on you." Remus stood up, picking up his jacket from the back of the chair. He was dressed in slightly shabby muggle clothing, much the same quality as his wizarding clothing. "Oh, and cub?" Harry looked at him, wondering what Remus was going to ask, raising an eyebrow in silent question. "Don't call me Professor. Call me Remus or Moony. I haven't been a professor for years now, and last year at headquarters it was kind of odd for everyone to be calling me Professor. Not to mention it allowed Padfoot any number of sly jokes at my expense." Remus said, eyes closed with a faintly saddened grin on his face. He opened his eyes, and looked back down at Harry._

"_Okay… Remus. I'll see you next time. Just give me a second, I'll see you to the door."_

End Flashback 

The rest of the month had passed Harry by rather quickly. After Remus had left, he'd thrown himself into cleaning his room up. After that, he'd showered and changed his clothes, unpacked some of his trunk and set himself to work. He'd come down for dinner with the Dursley's that night, and had come across something which had made the next few weeks seem almost… surreal.

Flashback 

_Harry had made his way down the stairs, feeling better than he had in weeks, and quietly made his way into the kitchen. It wasn't quite time for dinner yet, Aunt Petunia still being in the middle of cooking, so he had wandered over to ask if he could help. Almost shrieking from shock when she heard him ask the question from behind her, she turned around and eyed him up and down. For a second Harry was certain he saw concern in her eyes, but… but that just wasn't possible. This was **Petunia Dursley**. One of the family who had made his life a living hell for ten years. She'd sneered at him in her usual fashion, and told him to set the table. Harry had done so, and then sat down and waited for dinner to be ready._

_Five minutes later, Uncle Vernon had walked in carrying the evening paper. He jerked back upon seeing his nephew, going to bellow before recalling the crowd at the station the week before, and the threats that had been made. He had settled for allowing his face to purple, before sitting himself down and hiding behind the newspaper._

_Not long after that, Petunia had called out for Dudley to come down to dinner, and set the plates down on the table. Dudley was still on a diet, albeit a completely different one from the last year. Now that he was the **Junior Heavyweight Interschool Boxing Champion** for the second year running, he'd been allowed to eat more normal foods, rather then the stuff Uncle Vernon had dubbed 'rabbit-food' a few years before. Harry heard him thumping down the stairs, but was shocked at the change he'd undergone._

_He was no longer the… 'quivering pile of lard', as one of the twins had described him during the summer of fourth year. Harry hadn't noticed all too much at the station or the ride back to Privet Drive, but Dudley had lost most of his fat. He was still absolutely massive, that was true, but now most of it looked to be muscle, hard compact muscle at that. He'd glanced at Harry sitting at the table, and quietly took his spot, keeping his eyes down and focusing on the food that was soon placed in front of him._

_The dinner had passed quickly and quietly, and soon Dudley and Vernon left the table, Dudley heading back to his room while Vernon moved into the living room to watch the television. Harry got up, and began to pick up the plates and cutlery. He'd just turned to go place them in the sink when his aunt spoke to him._

"_What are you doing, boy?" she asked, staring at him suspiciously. Harry placed his load next to the sink carefully before turning back to her. He locked eyes with her briefly, before he opened his mouth to speak._

"_I need something to do, Aunt Petunia. I'll do some of the housework this summer, for the time I'm here at least. I need to keep occupied during the day, and it's the least I can do. Don't worry about the others, I'll tell them I volunteered. Just… don't expect me to do everything. That, I won't do."_

_After Harry's speech, a gamut of emotions flitted across Petunia's face. Harry broke his gaze away from hers, turning back to the sink. He started to fill the sink with hot water, to do the washing up, when he heard the scraping of the chair behind him. He waited for his aunt to speak, but no words came. After the sink had filled up, he looked back to her. She was still staring at him, and only seemed to snap out of whatever state she was in when Harry's eyes came back into contact with hers. She'd nodded slowly, before leaving the kitchen._

_Harry shook his head. "Another weird moment in this supposedly normal house…"_

End Flashback 

Since then, he'd mainly worked outside. He'd gone over the garden, trying to save whatever of the plants he could, and had surprised himself with the success of his efforts. Obviously, a lot more of Herbology had sunk in then he'd thought. That thought had brought a smile to Harry's face, but made his mind turn towards his OWL results, which he thought he should have gotten by now. He'd asked about them the last time Remus had turned up, almost a week ago, but had been told that there had been complications, and that most results were delayed for anywhere up to three weeks. When he'd tried to press for more information, Remus had shrugged, muttering under his breath something that had suspiciously sounded like "Interfering bitch".

Harry had let it go then, there was nothing he could do about it for now at least. He'd kept his work going in the yard, and when he was in his room he obsessed over his textbooks. In a month he'd re-read all of them, going right back to first-year, especially focusing on his Defence texts. From those Harry had taken copious amounts of notes, taking every single spell that was in them and placing them into a list he had created. As he'd worked through Charms and Transfiguration, he'd placed the occasional spell from those two subjects onto the list as well - after all, one never knew what could happen during a fight.

If he wasn't working outside, or in his room, Harry tended to sit under one of the trees in the backyard, and attempt to meditate. This was a part of his attempts to learn Occlumency, after his spectacular failure last year. Remus had brought him a book about it that Dumbledore had lent him, which described the basics of the skill. With this basic understanding of what Snape had attempted to drive into his head, he'd begun the job of erecting his mental wards. Harry still sniggered on occasion when he thought about that description of the defences. After all, he was considered to be crazy by _someone_ all the time, and deserving of being locked up in a mental ward.

After three weeks of trying this, Harry knew he was nowhere near a Master Occlumens. That would take years and years of training. But what little he had managed to grasp at this point in time had managed to reduce the near-constant stinging from his scar to completely subside. This had buoyed him a bit, but not enough to make him belief that he would be capable of blocking, let alone repelling, a fully-fledged Legilimens attack, either through the bond or even directly. He continued to work on it whenever he had the time, and always before he fell asleep. It was beginning to become second nature to Harry to spend at least a half-hour every evening working to 'clear his mind'.

Harry had already done his exercises for the night, and now was just waiting to fall asleep. He glanced back across at the clock, and noted that it was now after midnight. He'd lost himself in the memories of the past month, and lost track of time. _Oh well,_ he thought to himself, _might as well stay awake. The birthday owls will soon be here._ He looked back at the sky, this time scanning the horizon for owls. Surely enough, he soon caught sight of a number of them heading towards his house. He opened his window up wide, and prepared a quantity of owl treats, just as the first of the owls glided in, led by his own Hedwig, and all laden down with packages. Most settled down onto any available surface, except for one energetic fluff-ball, which proceeded to zip around the room twittering like mad.

Groaning, Harry jumped around the room trying to catch the manic owl, called by its owner Pig. Using his Seeker skills, he managed the fact quickly, but not before knocking his legs on the edge of his bed twice. Taking the letter and the small package off the tiny owl, he quickly said, "I'll send a response with Hedwig, go back home!" and flung the owl out the window, where it dropped briefly before taking off, disappearing off into the horizon. He really hated the ritual that he'd taken to call Catch-The-Pig. The little owl was a menace, and was far too energetic for the time of the night that he usually showed up.

He quickly removed the other owls of their packages and letters, thanked them, gave them owl treats, and told them responses would be sent with Hedwig, who remained in her own cage, drinking from her water-bowl. The other owls left, and Harry went to close his window, only to stumble back away from it as more owls zoomed in, dropped off letters, and zoomed out. Harry could only look on bewildered from his position on the floor as a small mountain of letters piled up onto his bed. Finally, the owls stopped coming, and he stood up. Checking that no more owls were incoming, he closed his window and turned to his bed. Staring at the letters, Harry wished there was some way for him to tell what they were, and if any were dangerous. Cautiously he picked one up, holding it with his fingertips, and carefully opened it up. Nothing came bubbling out, no curse or jinx flew at him, so he looked inside. Only a piece of parchment was there, so he carefully brought it out and unfolded it.

Soon Harry was laughing at his own paranoid actions. It was a letter from one of the members of the D.A, Ernie Macmillan. He quickly went through the rest of them, and found that they were all from D.A. members, all wishing him a happy birthday, and the fifth and seventh years saying thanks for him helping get the top marks that most had got for Defence Against The Dark Arts in their OWLs and NEWTs. No-one had scored less then an E, most had scored at least one O, in DADA, and most ended up getting boosted marks in Charms as a bonus. The news brought a kind of frown to Harry's face, even though he was happy to have had such a positive effect on their results, he still hadn't gotten his own. Still, Harry sat down and wrote out a list of those who had written to him, to write back thanking and congratulating them. Then he went to his other presents.

He'd gotten a few DADA books, some from the Order members who'd been his escort last year, and ones he'd seen a lot around Grimmauld Place, such as Kingsley Shacklebolt, one from Neville, a book that had caught his eye almost six years ago when he first came to Diagon Alley, _Curses and Counter-Curses_ by Vindictus Viridian (a book which Harry planned to put to good use, and was very thankful for), Auror training manuals from Moody and Tonks (with a message that said not to let it be known that he had them – it was illegal for civilians to own copies), and _A Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ from Hermione (which, like Hermione had told him years ago, had a section dedicated to his toppling of Voldemort from power as a baby).

Ron had sent him a box of sugar-quills and chocolate frogs, along with a long rambling letter about his summer so far, and the chances of the Chudley Cannons in this years Quidditch Cup, one of several such letters to date. Fred and George had sent him a box that contained all manner of goods from their shop, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, mainly in the category of items that were not yet available to the general public – or at least, that's what the letter said. Harry carefully placed the box in his trunk, lifting it using one of Dudley's cast-off shirts. The rest of the Weasley family (except, of course, for Percy, who still hadn't made peace with his family) had all combined together to get him a watch, something that he hadn't had since the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. The letter accompanying it said that it had several special features, and that Bill had added on another one, that he'd explain to him next time he saw him. Grabbing the next present, he opened the letter that came with it first, and froze after reading the first line.

_Harry. This was supposed to be from both myself and Sirius… it just doesn't seem right not to give it to you. Also, there are two others, one from myself, one that Sirius had had wrapped since Christmas. Remember, it isn't your fault. He wouldn't want you to mourn him so much. And I get the feeling, with the gift we got for you, you won't be moping about much either. Have some fun with it!_

Hesitating briefly, he went back over the letter a few times, then the ones from the rest of the presents, before he managed to regain himself enough to open up the package. Three books fell out, one another DADA book, an in-depth look at magical combat on a large-scale, the other two bound in rather simple leather. Pulling the slightly larger one to him, he opened to the first page to reveal… absolutely nothing. He was about to start flipping his way through the pages when he saw a piece of loose parchment stuck in the near the binding. Pulling it out, he quickly read it.

_**By our most solemn motto, make yourself known to us, to see if you are worthy of the treasures that lie within…**_

Eyebrow lifted, Harry grabbed his wand and tapped the book, whispering, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He watched as the book began to fill in with ink, exactly like how the Marauders Map worked. The first page was a title page, the words "The Marauders Guide" showing up in intricate lettering, before it disappeared to be replaced by a block of writing.

Welcome purveyor of mischief, to this, the Marauders Guide. Within these pages can be found the compilation of pranks and other such tricks, all taken from our seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We the Marauders, Padfoot, Moony and Prongs, again extend our welcomes, and encourage you to use this book to the fullest extent possible.

Harry watched as this text disappeared, to be replaced by some more. _Hey Prongs Jnr., congratulations on turning sixteen. Hopefully, I'll be able to be with you to read through this, if Dumbledore agrees to take you away from your relatives place. If I'm not, and your feeling impatient, I'll explain about it now. Basically, it's a record of all the pranks we played through seven years of Hogwarts, complete with instructions on how to perform them such as wand movements and incantations and potions ingredients and recipes. And some come with photos, to show the effect on the victim. Use them, if you feel like it. You need to relax a bit, and nothing like a bit of mischief to loosen one up a bit! _Harry laughed softly at this. _You might have noticed we changed the introduction slightly… Moony and myself both agreed it was for the best. Now, get to enjoying it Pronglet! **Padfoot**_

The letter disappeared, and Harry flicked through the pages idly, noting several interesting curses, hexes and jinxes that would be good to use on Malfoy the next time he got obnoxious, and the accompanying photos, which sealed the deal in Harry's mind. _Next person to annoy me, gets one of these… or one of those… maybe one of them ones…_He finished flicking through the book, continuing to note down things he might want to use in his head. Tapping the book, he muttered, "Mischief managed", and set it down, picking up the other book.

It too was empty. Taking a guess, he again tapped his wand to the book and said the password. _Honestly, with a motto like that, do they think they were fooling any-_

Harry sat gaping in shock at the title of the book in his hands. This book, this was the book of adolescent wizarding male legend, especially among Hogwarts students. He held in his hands the Holy Grail. It was the Young Wizard's Handbook. Thought to be a myth, it was whispered about in the dorm, bathroom or locker room. Filled with the wisdom of young wizards through the ages, and all focused on one thing.

Witches.

Harry had heard Dean and Seamus talking about it on a few occasions in the dorm back at Gryffindor Tower. Fred and George had begun an interesting discourse into whether or not it actually existed after a Quidditch practice one evening. They said Bill had once been told by a seventh year when he was in second that it had been available for hiring by a pair of industrious students who had since left the school. That was the closest anyone he'd ever heard talk about it had gotten. Well, once he'd heard a Hufflepuff claim to have a copy, but he quickly changed his story after being swamped by the male population of all four houses in fourth year and up wanting a look at it, a few years ago.

But he had in his hands an actual copy! Sitting there in a daze, he carefully placed the rest of his presents on the floor, and began to read, until he fell asleep a few hours later. All the time, his thought's echoed one thing. _What a cool godfather_. And at the same time, tears slowly trickled down his cheeks.


	2. Chapter 2 Redux

Waking up the next morning was an easy, gradual experience for Harry. A note he'd received a few days ago from Professor Dumbledore had said he would be picked up today, and taken to a secured location for the rest of the holidays, so Aunt Petunia hadn't come in to wake him up to get to work on the garden. He stretched out lazily, rubbing his neck from the slight twinge that it had developed from the awkward way he'd fell asleep reading the book Sirius had given him.

He looked down at the book. It was, he decided again, an extremely cool gift. Again, the only downside to it was the fact that Sirius was dead, and he wouldn't be able to talk to him about it. Harry quickly banished away the thoughts of _It was your fault_ almost before they could appear, and turned his head to look at his alarm clock.

Jumping up in shock, Harry almost burnt himself on the little light that was attached to the head of the bed, which had been on all night now. He quickly flicked it off, and began to shove stuff into his trunk. It was almost twelve, almost time for him to be picked up! He'd been asleep nearly a full twelve hours. He hadn't slept that long, without any 'assistance' that is, in years.

The letter had arrived two days ago, just saying that Order members would be coming at twelve to take him. Harry had felt his spirits raise a bit, only to fall at the thought of possibly going back at Grimmauld Place for the rest of the holidays. The old house would be full with memories of last summer, and of Christmas, of the time he had spent with Sirius. Even though he knew he'd come far, he wasn't quite sure if he could deal with it. Harry hoped he was going elsewhere, even though he couldn't think of anywhere else he might be going to. _The Burrow, or Hogwarts… those two would be nice…_

Sweeping all the books into his trunk, he quickly threw in all his clothes, and then went through the scrolls of parchment that littered the desk. Most were lists of spells, hexes, jinxes, curses, shields- all DADA stuff. All things he would learn by the end of the year. He couldn't wait to go through the books he'd gotten for his birthday and add more to the list. Once Harry had learnt them himself, he would pass them onto the D.A., which he had vague plans of reforming no matter who ended up teach DADA. As much as he hated it, he needed the help. Harry himself might be the only one who could kill Voldemort, but he still had to get through his Death Eaters first. And the more people who could defend themselves, the more trouble they would have making attacks. Not everyone would be a helpless victim. Not if he could help it.

The scrolls were all piled into the trunk, the individual ones quickly following them. He picked up his gifts, put them inside, and then reached under his bed, prying up the loose floorboard. Quickly he pulled a few more of his more precious items from their customary hiding places. His father's invisibility cloak. His photo album. A few of the more precious gifts and such. Like the ruined knife Sirius had given him in his fourth year. Ruined in the attempt to get into the Department of Mystery…

Harry's head lowered. Again, he'd managed to go some time without thinking of that gaping hole that Sirius's death had caused within him. The night of sleep he'd gotten, completely free of nightmares, of a vision of Sirius reaching out from the Veil… _Stop thinking about it! STOP IT!_

Gathering all the items into his arms, he dumped them in his trunk, and closed it. Or tried to. The lid wouldn't completely shut, so after replacing the loose floorboard, Harry went and sat on the lid. The addition of his own weight managed to close it, and he slipped the lock down.

Head buried in his hands, elbows resting on his knees, Harry remained seated on his trunk for what seemed an eternity. He straightened up, and looked at his new watch, and was shocked to find only five minutes had passed. The first week of the holidays had been spent in similar blurs, most of which had lasted hours and hours. This one… he'd snapped out of it almost immediately. Feeling slightly cheered by this, seeing it as a sign of recovery within himself, he looked over at the bed.

The book. _The Young Wizard's Handbook_. He'd left it out of the trunk, just left it lying on the bed. Looking at the leather-bound cover, Harry began to ponder something. Quickly he glanced at his watch. Still ten more minutes before anyone was due to come and pick him up. Plenty of time to do more reading. Plenty.

Sitting on the bed, he began to read it again, this time making sure he actually read it instead of just staring in wonder at it. In fact, he was so engrossed in it, he missed the arrival of Lupin, Tonks and Moody downstairs. Well, he didn't really miss it, he just ignored it. At least, that's what he told himself later, after Moody had finished having a discussion with him about being aware of one's surroundings at all times. _Paranoid old bastard._

Turning the page, Harry's head snapped up at the polite cough that came from his now open door. Standing there, eyes twinkling slightly in amusement, was Remus Lupin, once again visiting Number 4 Privet Drive. Behind him, laughing quietly was Tonks, her hair a deep red and blue, oddly subdued for her. After all, the Auror metamorph usually had an incredibly bright colour to her hair. Downstairs, he could just make out Moody's voice growling something to Aunt Petunia, who actually sounded fairly calm, instead of her usually shrill voice whenever faced with speaking to someone from the wizarding world.

"Little preoccupied there, Harry? What are you reading, that has you so interested?" Lupin asked him, voice lightly teasing. Harry almost blushed as he scrambled to his feet off the bed, closing the book.

"Nothing important, Moony, nothing important." Harry held the book close to his chest, and began to go put it in his trunk.

"Ah, Harry? You might want to close it. You know, properly and all. Wouldn't want someone to see all that privileged information and all." Here, Lupin drew himself up slightly. "After all, that book is a work of art."

Harry again felt his face heat slightly, so he pulled his wand, opened the book up, and tapped it, muttering, "Mischief managed". He looked at the two standing in his door, and raised his eyebrow. "Well, are we going?"

Lupin and Tonks both stepped into his room, clearing the way for Moody who had just trooped up the stairs. "Come on, Potter. Time to go, you got all your stuff together?" the old auror growled.

"Yes, Moody, all ready to go. Just waiting for you now."

Moody flicked his wand at Harry's trunk, and it rose slightly off the floor. "Grab a hold of that, then grab a hold of this." Here he pulled out an old _Daily Prophet_, one of the ones from almost two months ago. **_You-Know-Who Appears At Ministry Of Magic!_** it shouted. Harry snorted. He'd been saying Voldemort had returned for nearly a full year by that stage, and so had Dumbledore. But what had it taken for people to believe him? An appearance by the Dark Tosser himself, in the Ministry itself. And at what cost?

Harry's moment of introspection lasted only a few seconds, before he grabbed both his trunk and the old newspaper. Lupin and Tonks also touched it, and Moody touched his wand to it, muttering a brief incantation. Harry felt the sudden jerk behind the navel that characterised Port-key travel, and the lack of other sense. The whole world briefly revolved around his hold on the newspaper, his hold on his trunk, and that yanking feeling, of being pulled along against ones will.

Just as quickly as it had begun, the journey had ended, and Harry went sprawling on the ground, almost dragging his trunk over his legs. Lupin and Moody remained standing, but Tonks… Tonks had fallen even worse than he had. Somehow, she had ended up arse over tit, on her back with her legs over her head. Harry had only managed to just avoid breaking his glasses as he slammed into the ground, it was a good question how Tonks had managed to do that. But then again, it was Tonks, who had to be one of the most spectacularly clumsy people on Earth.

"Ugh… I hate port-keys… where are we?" Harry asked, voice partly muffled by the fact he was still lying face down on the ground. He could hear Lupin chuckling at him, and Moody and his wooden-leg striding away, followed by the opening and closing of a door. A hand landed on his shoulder helped bring himself to his feet, and he looked around. It was a fairly non-descript hall, yet one that was awfully familiar. "Oh no… not here…" he whispered to himself.

It was 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius's old house. It didn't seem quite so… dark, as it had earlier. Something seemed to have lightened up the place considerably. But still… it was the house of his dead Godfather. The hand had remained on his shoulder, and now it squeezed tightly, offering comfort. Harry's shoulders slumped, before he turned around to look at Lupin.

His face was… tired. Empty. A vast sadness, and loneliness, had filled it. The laughing mask that was often there had fled, leaving behind what filled it now. The last of his friends, the true Marauders, had died, and he was alone. The only one still alive was the traitor, the rat Wormtail. First it was Prongs, James Potter, along with Lily Potter. Now, Padfoot, the one who before Harry's third year he'd thought had betrayed them, was dead. The last of one. The only link was Harry. Prong's Junior.

"I know, Harry. I know."

They were the only words that he spoke. The two looked each other in the eye, and another silent moment sprung up. This one was quickly interrupted by Tonks asking for help to upright herself from the position that she had inexplicably got herself into. The two brought her to her feet, and then Harry grabbed his trunk.

"Same room as last time?" he asked, beginning to walk towards the stairs that led upstairs.

"No actually, a different room. Come on, I'll show you where. Tonks, just go into the kitchen, I want to have a word with Harry while he settles in." Lupin said, waving Harry forward and Tonks towards the kitchen. The two began to climb up the stairs, then along the second floor corridor. They passed his room that he'd shared with Ron last year, and passed the room that Ginny and Hermione had shared, and into a short corridor that he hadn't noticed last year. There were six doors leading off, two of which were open, revealing them to also be bedrooms. Lupin walked up to one of the closed doors, and swung it open. He gestured Harry to precede him in.

He came to a dead stop in the doorframe. The room was richly decorated in Gryffindor colours, deep scarlet and gold, a queen-sized four-poster bed occupying most of the space, with enough room for a desk, a dresser, some bookcases (empty) and a few chairs. The chairs seemed to have come straight from the Gryffindor common room, they just looked so… right, for the colour scheme. The fact that they were slightly beaten up and very comfortable looking helped to increase that feeling. Harry stepped forward to take a closer look, and realised these **were** the chairs from the Gryffindor common room, most specifically his, Ron's and Hermione's favourites for when they were lounging about (not that Hermione ever really lounged about.).

"What… how… when…" he managed to splutter out. A quiet chuckle from behind him made him turn his head back to the door, where Lupin was watching him with a soft smile on his face. "What's going on?"

"This was Sirius's idea. He'd wanted to do it before Christmas, but he never really got around to it. It was like the whole house was fighting being changed, and with Kreacher doing whatever he could to get in the way… well, nothing was getting done. He'd planned it out, and after Kreacher… decapitated himself, Dumbledore managed to bring in a few house-elves from Hogwarts, who were more than glad to help. Now, all the first and second floors are done, and the basement, cellars and third floor are all halfway done. And once all of these bedrooms were clean… well, we wanted to honour him, by giving you the room he'd planned from you. The chairs… well, they were chosen by the house-elf. Dobby? I believe you know him" Lupin smirked a bit at this, and Harry had to roll his eyes through the overwhelming desire just to break down into a sobbing heap, which was taking all his self-control developed from the ten years of living with the Dursley's. If Dobby had been involved, every second sentence would have involved the words "The Great Harry Potter" or something to a similar effect. _And if Moony knows…_ Harry groaned, he was going to get a bit of taunting about it.

"Yes, well, I did manage to free him from the Malfoy's, so he's bound to think quite highly of me, can we leave it at that?" Harry said, his cheeks reddening slightly as he said it. "Can… can I just look around for a bit? Settle in, get used to it? I… I don't think I'm going to be able to talk, or even listen properly for awhile, this is just so… wow…" Harry trailed off, and he could feel a resurgence of despair.

Lupin nodded. "Okay, Harry. I'll come around in a little while. I need to talk to you about some things, some things about Sirius. And your OWLs, too. Come down if your ready in under, say, half an hour. Happy Birthday, Harry." With that, he closed the door, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts.

He continued to just stand there, shocked. He couldn't believe it. This was his room. His very own room. He didn't have to share it with anyone, it wasn't able to be locked from the outside, and he could do anything he wanted in here. Pulling his trunk, he put the _Handbook_ down on the desk and sat on the desk-chair. He'd somehow managed to keep a hold of the book, and not even damage it. Reaching down, Harry unlocked his trunk and began the slow process of clearing it out.

The Invisibility Cloak, photo album and other items made their way onto the bed, to wait until he could find places to place them. His spell-scrolls went onto the desk. In fact, he put all the parchment in his trunk, including his blank school supplies on it, along with some Muggle lined paper he'd managed to get his hands on. The books he just temporarily placed at the foot of the bookcase, not actually trying to organise them. His presents he resorted, placing the books with the other books and the others on the bed, still treating the twins' gifts with extreme caution. Then, he went to sort his clothes into the dresser, only to find it was already full with clothes, largely wizarding, off much better conditions than the what were practically rags he was wearing at the moment. Looking quickly through what was in there, he estimated that he wouldn't need clothes for the rest of Hogwarts, if he didn't grow any more than he already had. The variety was quite wide, so he grabbed out a shirt, and held it to himself. He couldn't quite see if it was the right size, so he slipped off Dudley's old shirt, and put his new one on. Almost immediately he felt it resize itself to him. "Wicked" he said to himself, before quickly grabbing a pair of pants out of the dresser, taking off his shoes and Dudley's old jeans, quickly getting into the new trousers. Again, they adjusted to his size. "Definitely wicked."

Harry was in the middle of pondering what to do with the pile of Dudley's cast-offs that had gathered in the near the door when Lupin came back into the room.

"I see you've explored everything. And what are these?" he asked, pointing at the pile of clothes.

"Dudley's old stuff. I was just thinking about how to get rid of them."

Lupin nodded slowly for a second, before calling out in a clear voice "Dobby, can you come here for a second? We need a hand with something"

With a soft crack, Dobby appeared in the room. "Yes, Mister Moony? What can Dobby do for you?"

Harry bit back a snicker, but Lupin still levelled a glare at him. "Yes, Dobby, can you please dispose of Harry's old clothes please?" he asked, voice polite even though his eyes were promising dire vengeance if Harry laughed.

Dobby jumped up, and squealed, turning around to face Harry. "**HARRY POTTER SIR!**" The manic house-elf flung himself at Harry, who managed to turn to the side enough not to catch Dobby's head fair to the crotch. "Harry Potter sir, you're here, you've arrived! Oh, Dobby is so happy to be serving you! Does Harry Potter want anything?" Dobby had released Harry, and was now bouncing up and down in front of him. Now it was Lupin who was biting back laughter, and Harry who's eyes were full with promises of vengeance if that laughter got out.

"No Dobby, I don't need you to do anything. What you can do for me, however, is get rid of these clothes here. You can take whatever you want for yourself, if you feel the need."

Dobby's eyes suddenly began to well with tears, and he went still. "Harry Potter is too generous. Thank you, Harry Potter sir, thank you!" he cried, and snapped his fingers. All the clothes disappeared, and a second later so did Dobby, with another soft crack.

Lupin finally burst out laughing, and after a seconds embarrassment, Harry joined him. After awhile, the two calmed down, and Harry went and sat down on his favourite chair, gesturing for Lupin to take the other. "So, Remus, what do you have to talk about? And what's the deal with my OWLs, I thought I'd have them ages ago!"

Lupin sat down, and ran a hand through his hair for a second. "Well…"


	3. Chapter 3 Redux

Lupin sat down, and ran a hand through his hair for a second. "Well…" 

Looking a little uneasy, Lupin reached inside his robes and pulled out a sheaf of parchments. "We'll do this first… it's your OWLs. There was a bit of trouble over most of them, and some… interference from the Ministry in your case, which delayed them even more. Fortunately, they couldn't manage to affect your results at all, so here you go."

Harry took the sheets out of Lupin's hands, and began to scan them. He skipped quickly through the introduction and got down to the meat of it.

_Subject Practical Theory Overall_

_Astronomy A P A_

_Care of Magical Creatures O O O_

_Charms E E E_

_Defence Against The Dark Arts O+ O O_

_Divination P P P_

_Herbology E E E_

_History of Magic N/A D D_

_Potions E O O_

_Transfiguration E E E _

_Note: indicates the interrupted Astronomy practical exam, which has been decided will be available for a re-test earlier in the year. Students may choose to keep these results, or actually take the exam in order to increase their standings._

_Note+ indicates that the examiner believed you to have performed above and beyond that to be expected in an OWLs student, and if it were possible, your result would have been greater than O._

The note was signed by one of the examiners, and Harry let it fall out of his hands. Lupin looked at him, before he asked "Well, how did you do?"

Harry was staring at the place the parchment had been in shock, and it took a little while for Lupin's voice to break through his haze. He picked up the parchment from where it had landed and handed it wordlessly to him.

Lupin looked over it, before breaking into a grin. "Great job, Harry! Eleven OWLs! Your parents would be proud of you!" he said, reaching over and grabbing Harry by the shoulder. "Sirius would be proud of you too. A splendid effort."

He remained dazed for a few more seconds, just nodding his head, before something Lupin said jarred him slightly. "Eleven OWLs? I thought I only got nine? How did I get eleven?" he asked him, a puzzled frown appearing lightly on his face.

Leaning back in his chair, Lupin went into a very professorial mode of speech. "Yes, you see, young Harry, when you get O's in all your scores, practical, theoretical and overall, it actually counts as two OWLs. After all, there are only twelve subjects, but the maximum possible OWLs you can get is twenty. You can't get the double OWL point for anything with only one exam, like Muggle Studies, History of Magic, Arithmancy or Ancient Runes."

Harry leant forward and shoved him. "No need to be like that, Remus. Besides, that's not the only strange thing… Potions! I got an O! How, by Merlin's beard, did I manage that? Does that mean I can take Snape's class? Do I really want to take two more years with that greasy git?"

The corners of Lupin's mouth twitched up before he could stop them. "Professor Snape, Harry. At least until you finish school, you have to call him Professor Snivellus, I mean, Snape" He smirked at the end, before he faded into a more serious expression. "So, what are you going to do, Harry?"

Moving his eyes to the parchments still in his hands, Harry saw they were written in the traditional Hogwarts emerald green ink. It was the course selection form for the NEWTs. He'd managed to qualify for all the ones he needed for Auror selection, but he wasn't quite sure he wanted to be an Auror anymore, especially after a few of the incidences last year and with the fact that new laws, laws such as the new werewolf restrictions which Harry found quite distasteful, were being introduced which he would have to enforce, no matter how little he cared for them.

He weighed up some of the options in his mind. Even if he didn't end up becoming an Auror, many of the NEWTs he'd need for it were commonly asked for in other possible careers, so they'd be a good base to spring from. He could still remember a similar talk from Hermione, one of the many that people had been having before and after the career's counselling.

"I'll take Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against The Dark Arts. What else… Care of Magical Creatures as well" Harry said out loud, before moving over to his desk to get a quill and some ink. Quickly he wrote down his choices, and went to walk out the door.

"Ah, Harry? You missed something"

Harry looked back over his shoulder at Lupin, an eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Well, cub," he began, "for your NEWTs you have to choose one extra elective class. Mostly they offer things like Magical First Aid, Wizarding Law, Household Magic, similar things like that. You have to choose one of them as well. Don't worry about them too much, they're just little extra classes, that shouldn't too deeply impact on your workload"

Harry drifted back to his seat, lowering himself down carefully. "Well, I know which one I'd choose, but which one would you recommend? What do you think I would be best served by focusing my efforts on?"

Leaning forward, Lupin dragged a hand down his face. "Well, knowing the amount of trouble you get into, I'd say Magical First Aid. If you end up deciding to be an Auror, than that would be an advantage, either it or Wizarding Law. Both are within the first year of the Auror training., so it would be just a quick refresher and that bit would be done"

Nodding his head, Harry opened the parchment back up, and added in Magical First Aid. He neatly folded it up, and again was headed out the door when a tapping on his window stopped him. Turning around, he could see Hedwig sitting on the window ledge, blinking slowly at him. "Hedwig!" he cried, and rushed over to the window. She hadn't been there in the morning when he'd woken up, so he'd assumed she'd gone out hunting earlier and hadn't returned or was going to pick up a letter. "Just in time girl! I've got something for you to take to Hogwarts, after you've rested a bit."

The snowy owl hooted at him, ruffling her feathers slightly and extending out her leg. On it was a letter, which he quickly removed, but instead of drawing her leg back in and flying to her cage, which she normally did, she continued to sit there with leg extended.

"Are you sure your up to it now, girl? It can wait."

She hooted insistently this time, reaching out to nip him with her beak for questioning her.

"Okay, okay. Here you go. Have a safe trip, and don't worry about getting back too quickly!" Harry quickly attached the letter, and moved back as she winged her way out of the window, and slowly disappeared over the horizon. He watched her disappear for a second before turning back to Lupin, who was grinning… eerily, was the only way Harry could describe it, at him. "Ah, what else do we have to talk about, Remus? And can you stop looking at me like that, it's creepy."

Lupin shook himself. "Yes, well. Who's that letter from?" he asked. Harry looked down at the letter. It was addressed to him, and he turned it over. It was sealed with the Gringotts crest, and the return address was Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley, London, England.

"It's a letter from Gringotts. But why would I be getting a letter from Gringotts?" Harry asked, a puzzled frown etching itself slightly on his forehead. Lupin sucked in a breath quickly like he'd just taken a punch to the stomach. "Remus, what's wrong? Is everything okay?" Harry asked again, this time concernedly.

Lupin nodded his head slowly, his face having leached itself of colour leaving it and odd grey. "Yes, Harry, everything's fine. In fact, that letter… well, it involves what else I want to talk to you about." The older man leant forward, and, propping his elbows on his knees, rested his head in his hands. "Come and sit down over here so we can talk about it."

Harry slowly made his way over to the chairs, and lowered himself down almost grimly. "What is this about Remus? Why would Gringotts be sending me a letter?" he asked quietly. "What's going on?"

Taking a deep breath, Lupin suddenly blurted out "It's about Sirius's will"

He felt himself fall backwards in the chair, almost sliding off as he fought to maintain consciousness. Sirius's… will? His will? He's really dead…

Eyes beginning to blink away the tears that threatened to course down his cheeks, Harry choked down some air, and lurched back to an upright position. "I don't want any of it," he managed to lurch out, "throw it all away, give it to anyone else, I don't deserve it, not after that, it's all my fault…" he began to babble, throwing his arms around his head, drawing his knees up to his chest.

He could feel Lupin reaching out and putting his arms around him, and begin to slowly rock him. "Haven't I told you before, cub, that you aren't to blame? It isn't your fault, Harry, it isn't your fault. You've got to remember that. He chose to be there, he chose to be so reckless, and it was Lestrange's curse that pushed him in. Not you. You didn't tell him to go, you didn't curse him into the veil."

After awhile, Harry began to calm down, the tears stopped running, and he pulled back from Lupin and began to wipe his eyes with the end of his shirtsleeve. "Sorry about that, Remus. Sometimes, when I think I'm over it, it just comes back and hits me… so hard… I just can't get used to the fact that he's gone. I know it's not my fault, but still… it doesn't stop the guilt. I could have kept him alive, for a least a little while longer…"

Harry felt Lupin stiffen somewhat, even though he had all but released Harry completely. "Harry, it most likely wouldn't have been for much longer. Sirius was going insane from being cooped up in here. He would have done something stupid just to get out of here. The fact that he died, defending you, is how he wanted to die. You were everything to him Harry. At the time, he was beginning to lose hope of ever being freed, of Wormtail ever being caught, his name being exonerated. At least this way, when he went out, he went out defending you. What he wanted, Harry, what he wanted. To see you live even if it meant his death." Lupin grabbed Harry by the chin, and Harry looked into his tired brown eyes. "Like I said, do not disrespect his memory. Live."

The two remained like that for awhile, before Harry broke the eye contact, dropping his view down to the Gringotts letter still in his hands. "So, what will this say? What's in his will?"

Moving back, Lupin shook his head. "I don't know Harry. The Black family was one of the oldest pureblood families in Europe, if not the world, and they had considerable wealth and assets, most of which lay untouched due to the fact that Sirius was in prison. He was the sole heir, after his brother was killed." Harry opened his mouth to ask a question, but Lupin waved him off. "None of the others count, Andromeda, Narcissa or Bellatrix. They weren't in the straight line of inheritance, and they all married out anyway. Andromeda was actually disowned, so she can't claim anything. You've got to understand Harry, this is an incredibly complicated business. The only ones who have any say are the heads of the family, and Gringotts. Not even the Ministry can interfere in most cases, not even with people in Azkaban."

"So… what's going on? What has Sirius done?"

Again Lupin shook his head. " I don't know Harry. You'll have to open that letter to find out. Seeing as how the Ministry has no power over these proceedings, the fact that Sirius was an escaped convict has no bearing on it. The goblins… they don't completely accept the wizarding justice system. And then there's the fact that Sirius was never formally charged… he was just thrown into Azkaban." Lupin smiled at this, except it was almost a grimace. "Therefore, anything could have happened. You'll just have to read the letter to find out."

Harry brought it up to his lap, and gently opened it. A small pile of parchment tumbled out of the letter, surprising him with how much actually fit into it. Harry shot a quick, astonished glance at Lupin, who merely nodded. "Safety precaution. Don't want the letter to look too important, so they keep the envelope small." Harry nodded and took the first piece of parchment, and began to read.

**Dear Mr. Potter**

**Our condolences on the loss of your Godfather, one Sirius T. Black, and our sympathies in what must be a terrible time for you. This letter includes information left by the deceased on the dispersal of personal assets, along with those of the Black Family.**

**Included are several legal documents which must be read and signed. Most of these are mere formalities, but one is a matter of grave importance, regarding your standing in relation to how the actual realization of the will must come into effect. We advise you read this document next, and decide on your course of action before reading any more of the papers.**

**Also, along with the document is a personal letter, which should be read first.**

**Again, our condolences.**

**Ragnok**

**Head of Wills, Deeds and Testaments**

**Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley, London, England**

Harry looked up at Lupin. "It says I've got some papers to sign, along with a personal letter. It also say I should read the letter first, then read one specific document before I move onto the others." He felt his brow crease in puzzlement. "What does that mean, Remus? What the bloody hell is going on!"

"Calm down, Harry, calm down. I don't know what he's done anymore than you do. But maybe he explained it a bit in the letter. Read it, Harry, and tell me."

"Alright, I'll do it." Harry lifted up the next bit of parchment. He quickly scanned it. "This is it."

**Harry.**

**This letter has been attached to my will, so if I die before you turn seventeen, then this all kicks into effect. I certainly hope I don't, Harry. I've already missed so much of your life, I really don't want to miss out on anymore. But, with Voldemort's return, war will soon be on our doorstep, and so as much as I hate to do it, I take these precautionary steps.**

**If I die, without heir, you will become the last scion of the House of Black, along with the House of Potter. In simpler terms, I'm adopting you. I can't do it at the moment, what with the whole being an escaped convict thing, the Ministry would arrest me as soon as I walked in the door!. The only legal way for me to adopt you is to name you as my principal heir, which means upon my death, all of my, and my family's, assets, power and responsibilities fall to you. Don't worry, Harry, most of them aren't all that important.**

**If the worst comes to happen, you will become Harry Potter-Black, if you agree. I know I'm being unusually serious, but this is not the time for jokes. Please Harry, accept it. If you don't, all of it, all the Black family assets, will devolve to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and even to Draco Malfoy.**

**I know this must be tearing your heart apart Harry. You have to accept it, just to keep it out of the Dark Lord's hands. Please Harry, please.**

**All I ask is that you follow the provisions in the will. Hell, you can even add some more if you want. Just make sure you take care of Remus, if he's still there. **

**I love you.**

**Snuffles.**

Harry sat back, completely in shock. The letter fell out of his hands, the rest quickly joining it on the floor as he began to lose himself in his mind. He could hear faintly Lupin asking him what was wrong, but all he could do was shake his head. What was with his world being continuously turned on its head over the last few months? First, the Department of Mysteries and Sirius's death. Then the revelation of the Prophecy. His depression, and being snapped out of it. The move to, and remodelling of, Grimmauld Place. His OWLs. And now, Sirius's will. It seemed like someone had a grudge against him upstairs.

He didn't notice Lupin pick up the letter, or quickly read it and sink back in his chair. Still lost in his stupor, he was suddenly snapped out of it by the sight of two fingers snapping together in front of him. "Thank goodness you responded Harry, I was just going to get some help if you didn't so soon." He waved the letter. "So, Harry, what are you going to do?"

"I… I… I don't know." Harry shook his head. "What else can I do? Like he said, if I don't accept it, it goes straight to the Malfoy's, or to Lestrange. I'll accept it." He stopped, shaking his head. "I just… wish it wasn't necessary. That it didn't have to happen at all." He bent down to the floor, and picked up the parchments. Sorting through them, he found the one that outlined his adoption as the heir to the House of Black. Reading it quickly, he looked up at Lupin. "What the bloody hell does this mean?"

Lupin chuckled, and extended a hand for the parchment. After scanning it himself, he had a thoughtful look on his face. "Well, you see Harry, by signing this piece of parchment you are essentially selling your body for sex on the streets of London, while offering organs to rich Muggles who are suffering rare diseases."

Jaw gaping open, Harry stared at the older man. "That is not funny, Moony! That is not funny at all!"


	4. Chapter 4 Redux

_Jaw gaping open, Harry stared at the older man. "That is not funny, Remus! That is not funny at all!"_

Harry stared at the older man, mouth gaping, until he noticed the slight twitch under his left eye. "Ah! You utter… Moony! Oh, I'm so going to get you for that!" Jumping out of his chair, Harry flung himself at the older man, who let out the laughter he'd been restraining. The two fell to the floor, and rolled about for a few minutes, Harry vainly trying to grab Lupin around the neck and put him in a headlock. Remus was focused on keeping himself out of this predicament, hindered largely by his inability to stop laughing but managing adequately none the less.

After a few minutes of this activity, they both rolled apart and lay on the floor, breathing rather heavily. A comfortable silence hung in the room, and Harry felt… safe. A feeling that was altogether uncommon in his life, especially over the last few years, and many of his earlier years with the Dursley's. He continued to lie there, basking in the feeling of security, his mind temporarily off the troubles he had just been reading through.

_Is this what it would have been like? Is this what my life would have been like, if I wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived? If Voldemort… no, Riddle, hadn't gone Dark? If mum and dad had lived, if the Marauders had remained together? Would I have brothers and sisters? How much different would I be? Just normal. Nothing special, just someone living their life. _Harry frowned a bit. _Too bad that's going to remain a dream. Even if I after I defeat Riddle, I'll be even more famous. I wonder what my title would be…_

Again Harry was pulled out of his own thoughts, this time ever more absurd titles that the Wizarding world might give him after Voldemort was gone, by Remus snapping his fingers in front of his eyes trying to get his attention. He looked up into the older man's eyes, and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Yes, Remus?"

Lupin held out his hand to Harry, who gripped it and used the leverage to get himself into a standing position. "Any decision, Harry? Or are you going to think it over some more?" he asked, as the two drifted back over to the chairs and sat down.

Leaning back into his chair, Harry slowly nodded. "I'm going to accept. Pass me the quill, would you?" Taking the quill, he dipped it in the inkwell and set it to the paper, quickly scratching out his signature. As he took the quill off the parchment, he felt a sharp pain on his index finger tip, and the whole letter glowed a golden colour before disappearing with a soft pop. Exclaiming from the sharp pain, Harry quickly looked at his finger. On the tip, a slight swelling of blood was appearing, and he stuck his finger in his mouth and sucked on it. "What the bloody hell was that?" he asked around his finger.

"Sometimes contracts require blood, particularly in contracts that relate to heirs and inheritance. It's one of the few blood magic's that are still legal, and that's only because it cannot be replaced and cannot be easily subverted for dark purposes. It must always be entered into willingly, and cannot be forced." Remus told him in a loftily professorial tone.

Harry smirked slightly. "Yes, Professor Moony, thank you for sharing your _vast_ knowledge of all things with me, a humble Prongs Junior. Now, excuse me while I go and find something to wrap my finger with to stop the bleeding." Somehow managing to say that, and all with extreme dignity, with a finger in his mouth, Harry now got up and went to search for a handkerchief or something similar. When he had his back turned to Lupin and heard the older man practically snicker, he turned back around. "What?"

Wand out and tapping into the palm of his other hand, it was now Lupin who was smirking. "Two words, Pronglet. Healing. Charm. Do you want one?" Harry began to blush slightly, and Lupin's smirk turned into a full-fledged grin. He quickly muttered an incantation, and watched as Harry sat back down, now slightly embarrassed.

Harry examined his finger for a second, and convinced that it was healed, picked up the parchments again. He quickly scanned through them all, not really understanding most of the content. After a minute of looking puzzled, he handed them over to Lupin, who skimmed his eyes over them briefly.

"Just standard forms for wills, they just say that you accept what has been bestowed to you and what has been given to others. I honestly don't know why they need to complicate it so much, who is really in the mood to decipher these things when they've just lost someone they love?" Lupin asked, disappearing off into a tangent. He handed them back to Harry who signed them, this time without the pricking of his finger. Pulling out the last sheet, he took one look at the first line, and took in a deep breath, eyes flicking over to Lupin to beg for support.

"I guess that's it then…" Lupin said, softly. "Sirius's will. Read it Harry. Get it out of the way." Getting up, he walked around behind Harry and grabbed his shoulders, giving Harry again a sense of security and protection. Taking a deep, calming breath, he looked down and began to read.

**I, Sirius T. Black, of sound mind and body, do hereby declare this, my will regarding all my belongings, responsibilities and assets. I do so in front of these witnesses, Albus Perceival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, who hereby attest to the validity of this will.**

**To my old friend, Remus J. Lupin, I do bequeath the deed for Padfoot Manor. Yeah, I know, calling it a manor is a bit of a joke, but we did have some good times there after Hogwarts, the two of us living together. And I know you'd never accept Grimmauld Place. Also, I pass into your care Gringott's Vault Number 562, containing a sum that shall keep you in Wolfsbane potion until such a time as your eventual death, hopefully at an extremely old age.**

**To my cousin Andromeda, her husband Ted, and her daughter Nymphadora, I bequeath upon you your rightful share in the Black Trust. Just take it. Don't try and argue with a dead man.**

**To my other two cousins – One galleon a piece. That takes care of that. You will never receive another Knut from the Trust. And you cannot challenge it. The conditions have been met, long before I hope this ever comes into effect.**

**To the Weasley family, for taking such good care of my godson, Harry – Vault 1021, a little something I had Dumbledore put together for me. You helped Harry grow into the fine young man he is, when I couldn't help him. By the way, the twins get to go in first. I've left some things in there for them. They should like them.**

**To the last of the Potters, and now, the Blacks – my godson, Harry. To you, I bequeath the Black Trust, all relevant properties, responsibilities and assets within. I also bequeath unto you my personal vault, Number 561. Most of this won't be available to you until you turn seventeen, Harry, so don't worry about it. It's largely been in safe hands since I was in Azkaban, and can wait however it long it has to if I do die before you turn seventeen. Though, you're bound to get a bit of a shock when you see records for both families. I know your father got one when he came into his inheritance.**

**Written, Signed, and Witnessed On This Day.**

**Sirius T. Black**

**Albus Perceival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore**

**Minerva McGonagall**

Harry looked over his shoulder at Lupin. "Ah... Remus? What does this mean?" His voice quivering with the barely repressed emotions he could feel building in himself, Harry shook the parchment he held in his hands. "Why did he leave everything to me?" Letting his index finger drag over the parchment, he ran it across the lines outlining what had come to him.

The hands on his shoulders gripped and released, massaging the tensed muscles that had come up. "You are his heir, Harry. Who else would he give it to? Under the conditions of the Trust, he had to give the majority to you, or risk Narcissa Malfoy challenging it. If Bellatrix wasn't an escaped convict, he'd have to worry about her now as well. He gave as much to us as possible. Also, he's probably left guidelines for you to go and spend it on people as soon as you get a chance to. We'll have to go down to the vaults and see." Lupin's voice calm voice settled down over Harry, and he felt himself relaxing again.

_It's not the fact he left things to me_, Harry thought to himself, _but rather how much he left to me! I would never had dreamed it, how much I got... wait a second, did he say ALL his belongings! Does that include... the motorcycle?_ Harry caught Lupin's eye. "Moony... what happened to his motorcycle?"

A brief look of shock crossed the face above his, and Harry almost snickered. "Well, I do believe Sirius and that machine of his were re-united last year. I think it's in the house somewhere, but I couldn't be too sure about that. He might have had it sent to his vault for storage. Why?" The shock had disappeared, now a slightly curious, maybe even suspicious look had replaced it.

"Oh, nothing, nothing... just thought I'd like to actually see it... I mean, I don't really remember the last time I saw it, only as a kind of dream. Just thought it would be nice." Harry had widened his eyes innocently, but he got the impression that it hadn't fooled Lupin at all. His guess was confirmed with the next words out of the older man's mouth.

"No, Harry, I will not let you ride it. Definitely not until you turn seventeen. But... I think we can have a search through the house for now. I can show you around all the changes, so you can see what's been done with the place. After all, it technically is your house now." Lupin stepped back from the chair, and came around towards the door. He'd reached for the door handle when he realised that Harry hadn't followed him, still sitting down in the chair, looking into space blankly. "Harry? Pronglet?"

Shaking his head, Harry levered himself out of the chair. "Oh, sorry Remus. Its just kind of... you know..." he said, waving his hand around the room. Nodding, Lupin opened the door and led him out into the hallway.

The two stood outside the door of Harry's room, the door closing behind Harry as the two faced each other. "So, where do you want to start? Top or bottom of the house?" Lupin asked Harry, gesturing him towards the stairs. The two made their way over, and Harry answered the question by heading up. "Up it is then. Next stop, third floor!"

In the old Grimmauld Place, the third floor had largely been the master bedrooms, or at least those were all that Harry had ever seen. True, the rooms had been huge, but he didn't think they'd been that big, to occupy the top floor entirely. He now realised that there had been another door, which when Lupin led Harry inside, he discovered was an owlery. "Was this here before, Remus?" he asked, looking at the small collection of owls who were all asleep or blinking lazily at the pair in the door.

"Yes, it was, but the access was in the kitchen, from over there." Lupin pointed over to a small staircase which ran along the opposite side of the wall, and Harry guessed ran down to the first floor. "Completely sealed off and sound-proofed from the rest of the house. Well, it was until we tore down most of the charms and the part of the wall where the door is now. After all, no-one's going to be sleeping up here from now on" he finished cryptically. Harry looked at him quizzically, but no more information was coming, so he turned and went out the door in the direction of Sirius's mother's room.

His jaw dropped when he opened the door to the room up. It looked like the whole room, including the master's suite, had been turned into on gigantic room. Not even a hint that this giant space had been two separate large rooms remained. There wasn't even any hint that Buckbeak had once laired in Mrs. Black's room. The whole thing had been cleared out and cleaned.

"What... what goes on here now?" Harry asked, with his jaw still hanging slightly open. Lupin silently chuckled at his reaction. The change really was quite dramatic. Not only was it now one whole room, but it was also considerably brighter. There were a number of tables and chairs scattered around it, so it wasn't a completely empty space.

"It's the Order's formal meeting room. Whenever the whole Order of the Phoenix is convened, we all come up here. Most meetings are still held downstairs, so up here isn't used that often, just when there are going to be a lot of people here. That way, we aren't constantly using the kitchen to hold these important war meetings. Hardly befitting the dignity of a such a prestigious organization as ours." Lupin had drawn himself up and affected a snobby accent towards the end of his statement, drawing Harry's attention back to himself and away from the room. Looking at the ridiculous pose, Harry burst out laughing.

"Yes... very prestigious..." he chuckled, earning him a disapproving look, which set him off even more. Cuffing him about the back of the head, Lupin muttered for him to follow, and the two made their way back down the stairs.

Back on the second floor, Harry looked around. "What's new down here?" he asked, noticing several new doorways. Lupin shook his head.

"Not a lot really. Most of the rooms were just sealed up before, we can't understand why in most cases. A few of the old rooms were resized, just to give some more room to the drawing room and the library. Your old room, the one you shared with Ron, it's one of the ones that got sized down, but not much. You two could probably still share it easily enough. The twin's room, Ginny and Hermoine's, Molly and Arthur's, mine, they all remained the same. That pretty much covers everyone who was staying here last time, the rest of the guest rooms were a bit mixed in what happened with them. Sirius's room... well, that's still the same. We just left it like it that, until you decide what to do with it."

Harry had been opening a few of the doors, seeing fairly ordinary rooms inside, when the last sentence sunk into his brain. _Sirius's room! Why do I have to decide about it... I don't think I can do anything about it yet..._ Looking up, he saw Lupin's eyes had again filled with concern. "Don't worry, Remus... just don't think I'll be making any decisions about that room for a long time to come…"

Nodding sadly, Lupin gestured Harry over to him. "That's alright, cub. You don't have to do anything about it until you want to. Do you... want to go inside?" he asked, concern still in his voice. All Harry could manage was a shake of his head. He definitely did not want to go in there just yet. The whole of today had just been one long roller-coaster, a ride on a bucking broomstick, up, down and all around at a hundred miles an hour.

Looking towards the stairs, he flicked his head in its direction. "Come on, I want to finish the tour. What's been done on the ground floor? What about Mrs. Black?" Harry paused for a second, thinking about the horrid portrait of the dead woman. "Has anything happened to her?" He saw Lupin grimace slightly. "Ah, I guess not then."

The two were halfway down the stairs, Lupin going through the changes to the first floor of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. "Overall, not much. Most of the rooms are now clean, and actually look liveable. The main dining room is actually available now, we couldn't even let you lot in there last summer it was that bad. The kitchen... well, it just seems worlds better than the dreary thing it was earlier. Actually looks like a good meal can come from it now, instead of dodgy ones." Lupin grinned wickedly at this, which puzzled Harry slightly. Hadn't Mrs. Weasley cooked most of the meals when he'd been here during the summer? Then he remembered that she'd gone back to the Burrow largely after Hogwarts had started, and after the Christmas holidays. _Well… might be something to hear about behind that…_

"The family dining room is the same, bright instead of dreary. That's basically the only change on this floor. Two rooms opened up, the rest actually look like they can be lived in rather then dens of wild animals." Lupin said, lowering his voice as they walked past the covered portrait of Mrs. Black.

"So, nothing new here. Can we just go straight to the kitchen? I'm feeling like I could have a bit of a feed." Harry whispered to Lupin. Nodding, he steered their way to the kitchen, going through the dining room first. And, like he'd said, the room looked different, but wasn't actually all that different. The only thing that looked to have changed was a large map hanging up on one wall, with the local neighbourhood on it, little dots moving around it's surface.

They opened the door to the kitchen, and saw Moody and Tonks sitting down and chatting with Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was picking at a plate of sandwiches laying on the kitchen counter. Harry waved at them all, and went and grabbed a plate. He put some of the sandwiches on it, and started to head back out the door. "Sorry to grab the food and run, but I want to get used to my room some more. Hello, goodbye!" he finished, waving over his shoulders as he exited the kitchen back into the main hallway, the greetings from the two Aurors and the retired one drifting along behind him.


	5. Chapter 5 Redux

The next few days kind of flew past Harry. He got accustomed to the new look Grimmauld Place, frequently raided the Black Family library for defence books, consulted with Lupin, Moody, Tonks, Shacklebolt, whoever was available from the Order about spells he could teach the D.A. His desk was absolutely covered in parchment, all filled with scribbling and corrections, notes on spells – how to perform them, shield from them. Things he needed to learn so that he could teach the others to defend themselves from whatever attacks were surely upcoming.

On the fourth day after his birthday, Harry was woken by Dobby excitedly jumping up and down on his bed, squeaking "Wake up, Harry Potter sir, wake up!" And for the fourth morning in a row, Harry wondered who had the bouncy house-elf to wake him up each morning. _Probably Remus, the bastard_, he groaned to himself.

He let Dobby continue to bounce and carry on for awhile, before he manoeuvred his body and swung his lower body off the bed and let gravity upright himself. Dragging some clothes onto his body somewhat sleepily, he stumbled off into the bathroom for some early morning ablutions. Stumbling back out a few minutes later, looking a whole lot more alert, Harry was surprised to see Dobby still bouncing on his bed. Usually he popped out once Harry had made it into the bathroom.

"Did you want something, Dobby?" he asked, and the elf stopped bouncing. Now that he'd stopped moving, Harry could see the letter that was clutched in his hand, and the green ink that the name on the front was written in. _Oh, it must be my booklist. Wonder what I'll be needing for dear old Hogwarts this year... we'll see soon enough!"_

"Here you go, Harry Potter sir, this just arrived for you. Mister Moony said to bring it up now." Dobby told him, before popping out after Harry had taken the letter from his hand. He moved over to and sat down in his chair, opening the letter up. A small cluster of parchments fell into his lap and, eyebrow raised, he began to sort through them.

**Mister Potter**

**This list covers the books and materials required for you sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This includes:**

**_Standard Book of Spells Grade Six_ by Miranda Goshawk**

**_Advanced Transfiguration Book One_ by Emeric Switch**

**_Defensive Shields and Wards_ by Rheme Stonewall**

**_Offensive Magic_ by Rheme Stonewall**

**_N.E.W.T Charms _by Charmaine Levioas**

**_Magical and Non-magical Beasts: How to find and ensure their care _by Tristan Scanran**

**_N.E.W.T Potions _by Conrad Tioncol**

**_A Guide to Antidotes, Anti-venoms and other Cures_ by Arsenius Jigger**

**_Field Healing: A Guide to Magical First Aid_ by Shorona Hedding**

**For your choice of Magical First Aid, you will also require additional potions stock, which will be available for pick up from several apothecaries in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.**

**Also this year, there is the possibility of a variety of celebrations occurring, in the forms of various balls. Dress robes will be required.**

Harry stopped. A ball? Maybe more than one? Fourth year was hard enough, but this year there might be more than one? Who would he go with? Should he go at all. Harry got up from the chair, the rest of the letter fluttering down to the ground as he began to pace back and forth, focused on that last paragraph of the list.

Finally, he sat back down. There was no use getting worked up about it now. It could wait, at least until he'd read the rest. He picked up the rest from where it had fallen on the ground, and began to read through them.

**Mister Potter**

**Congratulations on your results, they were quite excellent. I hope your summer has been well. The purpose for this letter is to discuss the matter of the Quidditch Captaincy of the Gryffindor team. Now, your ban from last year has been overturned, along with a lot of the other Decrees from last year, so you are back on the team as Seeker, by Ms. Weasley's agreement. On the matter of the Captaincy, I am offering it to you. Please send your reply by owl as soon as possible.**

Harry smiled. Written after that was: **Don't bother, Potter, I will be seeing you sometime in the next few days at Headquarters. Tell me then.**

**Onto other matters now. I am also offering you the position of Gryffindor male sixth year prefect. I can understand your shock at this, Mister Potter, but Mister Ronald Weasley resigned his position as Prefect a few weeks ago, citing his reasons as a "desire to focus more on study without the burdens of his Prefect concerns". This was accepted by myself due to his grades, which while acceptable, could have been a great deal better, especially for a Prefect.**

Harry smirked slightly. Ron had probably meant to focus more on Quidditch, rather than on his studies. Then it hit him. He was going to be Prefect! Him! He felt himself fall back into his chair, and his mouth begin to gape. _What the hell is it with me these days? Everything is coming as a bloody shock! Too many ups and downs, way too many!_

**Until the start of term, then. Enjoy your holidays.**

**Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall**

Harry looked down at the envelope all the parchments had arrived in. He could see that it was still bulging slightly at one end, so he reached in and pulled out the shiny silver badge. _I wonder how Remus wore his? Wouldn't the silver have hurt him when he was a Prefect?_ Harry thought, mind flitting back to one of the things he'd been told last year.

The rest of the parchments were all about the school's rules, and his new responsibilities in enforcing said rules. He flicked through them, noting which ones he'd broken with a quick grin, before moving on to the next. _Wow,_ he thought to himself, _I never knew how many rules the school has. But why would you need to say that inflatable sheep are not to be allowed within the dormitories... what the hell would one be doing in there in the first place?_

Shaking off that thought, Harry stuck the Prefect's badge onto his shirt, and went down to breakfast. Pausing outside the door, Harry drew himself up and stuck back his shoulders, making himself a caricature of an arrogant git. Or at least, that's what he told himself. He didn't quite know if he'd manage to pull it off. Opening the door, he saw only Lupin and Tonks were up, both sitting down at the kitchen table with half-eaten breakfasts on them, in the middle of a lazy conversation. Both turned to look at Harry, and promptly burst out laughing.

"Harry, you look like such a... such a... such a _Malfoy_, but with dark hair." Tonks blurted out. Harry dropped his shoulders, and adopted a hurt expression.

"You didn't have to go that far, Tonks. Do you want me to start calling you by your first name?"

Mock-scowling at Harry as he walked towards them, Tonks pulled her wand out and tapped it against her vibrant blue hair before pointing it at him. "Don't you even dare, Harrykins. After all, you aren't back at school yet, it wouldn't do for you to get into any... accidents..." Now she was smirking, a look shared by Lupin across the table from her.

Harry sat down, raising his hand to his forehead in mock-terror. "Oh, whatever shall I do against the evil Nymhador-"his performance was cut off by Tonks hitting him with a _Silencio_, which left him indignantly pointing at his mouth and throat, asking for her to take it off him. When the Auror relented after a few minutes, Harry huffed, and poked at the plate of food that had appeared before him, courtesy of Dobby. He sent a sidelong look at Lupin, who was still doubled over in laughter. "Fat lot of good you are, Moony! Letting me get jinxed like that"

Stopping his laughter, but his eyes still dancing with it, Lupin picked up his fork and continued his eating. It was while the food was in situ between plate and mouth, that he noticed the shiny metal badge on Harry's shirt. "Harry... is that a Prefect badge I see shining on your chest?" He pointed at it with his fork, forgetting that it still had food on it, which flew off and hit Tonks in the face. "Sorry, Tonks... well, is it, Harry?"

"Why, yes, Remus, I do believe it is a Prefect's badge. I do wonder where it came from?" Harry said in a vastly exaggerated questioning tone of voice, tilting his head to one side slightly while bringing one hand up to stroke his chin. "Why, I do believe it came from Hogwarts this morning with my supplies list for next term!" he finished, exclaiming loudly, dropping his jaw briefly, before he dissolved into laughter.

"Yes, haha, very funny cub. Congratulations, do you want some breakfast?" Lupin said, gesturing with his empty fork towards the plate in front of Harry. Nodding suspiciously, Harry flicked his head to the side as a fork-load of scrambled eggs went sailing past him. Glaring at Lupin, who was laughing himself now along with Tonks, he picked up his fork and began to eat.

The conversation was largely silent as the three ate, and soon all had polished off their plates, which Dobby came through and collected, and they began to talk of their plans for the rest of the week. "So, what are we doing this week, Remus? Anything exciting? Will I be able to go and get all my school things this year? It's been three years now since I've been to Diagon Alley, I really want to go back."

Lupin nodded. "Yes Harry, this year you will be going into the Alley. Dumbledore's been arranging for security since just after term finished, and he should be able to swing it into place for tomorrow. Also, later today the Weasleys are arriving, and so is Hermione a bit after them. So, today is just going to be waiting for them, making sure everything is ready, tomorrow Diagon Alley, after that... nothing is really planned at this point. Nothing else will really need doing, from what I can tell"

A grin slowly spread across his face. "They're coming? Today?" Harry jumped out of his chair. "Yes! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Harry asked him, one eyebrow slightly raised. Lupin went to answer, but he didn't wait, and merely got up and did a kind of... shuffle-dance move to the door. Hearing the sniggering behind him, he spun around and levelled a glare at them. "No more having to hang around with the _old_ people" he taunted, and ducked out the door to Tonks indignant noises of shock.

_Got her a good one!_ Harry thought to himself as he climbed the stairs back up to his room, tip-toeing past the painting of Mrs. Black, and closed his door behind him. He couldn't wait to see Ron, Hermione and Ginny again. The twins, he thought he could do without seeing for a _little _while longer, but they would still insert a good portion of fun into the new Grimmauld Place, which although it was a lot brighter than the old one, was still pretty serious.

He immediately set to tiding his room up. By which, he meant largely his desk. Dobby took care of the rest, even though Harry tried not to make a mess, and if he did take care of it himself as much as possible. Stacking up the parchments, he couldn't help but take a quick inventory of all the spells that he'd listed within them. _Wish I knew some of these during the Department of Mysteries..._ he thought to himself, shaking his head, _would have made some things a lot easier._

A knock on his door brought him out his slight daydream/flashback. Turning, he called out for the person at the door to come in. Professor McGonagall opened the door, and smiled warmly at Harry. "Hello, Mister Potter. How have your holidays been?" she said, moving towards the chairs.

"Professor McGonagall! Fine, fine Professor. I, um, I, sit down, just wait a second while I just do this and-"Harry hurriedly placed the parchments in a compartment of his desk, before turning back to the Transfiguration Professor, who smiled at his flustered state. "Sorry, Professor, I wasn't expecting you so early!"

Harry could swear his head of house was struggling not to laugh at him, her eyes seemed to twinkle suspiciously like Dumbledore's, while she kept smiling. "Neither did I, Harry, but other business brought me here quicker than expected, so I thought I would come up here and discuss your Hogwarts letter. Congratulations on your results, by the way. A most heartening result, regardless of attempted... interference." Her smile faded a bit there for a second, and her nose twitched slightly, before she continued on. "Now, Harry, the position of Quidditch Captain is being offered to you, seeing as how you have been reinstated on the team. Your broom is waiting for you at Hogwarts, so no need to worry about that. Now, do accept the captaincy?" she asked him, looking into his eyes intently.

Leaning back in his chair, Harry shook his head. "Sorry, Professor. I don't think I'd make good captain material, especially not this year. I think I've managed to rather neatly fill up my time, without adding the captaincy to it. As much as I would like to accept it, I won't. But, I will endorse Ron for it completely. I think he would make an excellent captain. Or Katie, she'd also do a good job."

McGonagall looked slightly shocked. "Miss Bell has already turned down the position, saying she didn't want the hassle along with her NEWTs. Mister Weasley stated his reason for resigning as Prefect as wanting to focus on his studies. Why do you think he would do a better job than you? And why do you think you'll have no time for the captaincy?" she asked him.

"Well, Professor, I've got my prefect duties, plus... well, I'm going to keep the Defence Association going, sort of as an informal Defence Against the Dark Arts club. That's going to take up a lot of time, there, just learning the new spells and passing them on." Harry paused, and McGonagall nodded her head in understanding. "I could take the captaincy, but that would just take too much time. Ron... well, if you added a catch to it, a certain level in his grades, then yes, he'd keep them up just so he could be captain. And on his suitability... he's Quidditch-mad, Professor! He's been supporting it from probably inside the womb! And as captain... well, who beat your giant chess-set in first year? Who remains the undefeated chess-champion of Gryffindor? He's got the right sort of mind for that sort of thing, and as Keeper, would be able to keep a better eye on things then I would as Seeker. Plus, being Captain would distract me from catching the Snitch." Harry smirked slightly cockily, and again swore that McGonagall was laughing at him, her mouth twitching slightly.

Face now straight, his head of house stood up out of her chair. "Alright, Mister Potter. You have made a strong case for Mister Weasley. Please, give this to him, along with instructions to see me the second day of school." She handed Harry the Gryffindor Quidditch Captains pin. "Also, make sure you warn him that there will be conditions he must uphold to keep his position. Until the beginning of term, Mister Potter then." McGonagall turned and walked out the door, Harry's "Have a good rest of summer, Professor!" following her out.

The rest of the morning was spent with Harry idly reading through the _Handbook_. He began to notice little amendments that had been made to the "most sacred and holy of tomes"(which was one of the additions, scrawled in the contents page of the book). Most of the book had Harry staring, almost bug-eyed, at the words. Once, he was startled into exclaiming "Is it even possible to do that?", which caused him to look up and around, a blush heating his cheeks. Luckily, no-one heard that outburst.

After lunch, which Dobby brought up to his room, Harry moved onto a Charms book he'd grabbed from the library the day before. It was largely domestic charms, which he thought he should learn for after seventh year. After all, he didn't really know where he was going to end up. Well, if worst came to worse and he wasn't any good at them, he could always hire Dobby...

As if drawn by Harry's thoughts about him, Dobby popped into room, almost causing Harry to throw the book in his hands at the roof. Looking shocked, Dobby went to beat his head against the table, but Harry lunged forward managing to stop the house-elf. "No, Dobby, you didn't do anything wrong, just startled me slightly."

"Harry Potter sir is too great and too kind..." Eyes, welling up in tears, Dobby looked at Harry adoringly. "Mister Moony is telling Dobby to come up and warn you that the Wheezies are coming soon, and does Harry Potter sir wish to be there to welcome them?" Dobby told him, and popped out after Harry nodded.

_Yes, they'll be here soon!_ Jumping out of his chair, Harry flung open his door and made his way to the kitchen. An area had been cleared inside, big enough for a group-portkey to land, obviously in preparation for the Weasley's arrival. "When are they arriving, Remus?" Harry asked, just as the red-headed family landed with a thump in the cleared area.

"Right about now, Harry!" was the cheerful reply, and the two chuckled. In amongst the general cursing and melee of voices, a loud male one shouted out "Harry!", quickly followed by a whole chorus of voices calling his name. The mass up-righted itself, and swarmed him into a hug.

"Welcome to Grimmauld Place!" he said, laughing at the group hug that had enveloped him.


	6. Chapter 6 Redux

Okay... well, I think the last time I updated I may have mentioned that I had just had to format my computer... if I didn't, then, well, not only did I have to do it then, but at least four times in quick succession in the lead up to December. I got it running again, all set up, and got Half-Life 2... technically for Dad for Christmas, but I wanted to... test it... yeah, that sounds right. So basically, I lazed around for a bit, what with work, final assessments for work etc etc...

And it didn't help that I'd lost the last three chapters. I had started on Chapter 7, was about a third of the way through it. The first of the four times I formatted my computer was kind of an emergency one, and I didn't have a chance to get on to back everything up(stupid XP and it's grace period...). Then I got stuck reading other stories... some awesome stories out there...

shakes head Okay, now I'm ready. Out of a job, so while I'm waiting for callbacks I'm gonna start writing again. And it will be better than the original Chapter 7. That... that was horrible. Welcome to the redone Chapters 1-6, with Chapter 1 being heavily redone, the others merely cosmetically touched up. ENJOY!

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* * *

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_"Welcome to Grimmauld Place!" he said, laughing at the group hug that had enveloped him._

The crowd of Weasley's continued with the massive group hug for a few more minutes, before they began to break off and collect their luggage to take it up to their rooms. Soon, only Harry, Ron and Ginny were left kitchen, Lupin and Tonks having taken off in the milling confusion of the arrival.

Harry examined his friends. Ron had grown, again, by at least four inches in the month since they'd last seen each other. He'd also filled out some more, broader in the shoulders. He was wearing a short-sleeve shirt, and Harry faintly winced at seeing the scars from where the brain attacked Ron at the Department of Mysteries. Ha, a brain attacking Ron Weasley…

Now Ginny caught his attention. And one word just echoed through his brain. _Wow._ The youngest Weasley had filled out as well, in decidedly more... feminine ways. Harry almost brought his fist up behind his head. _Merlin, Potter, it's Ginny! Try anything and forget Voldie, Clan Weasley will tear you apart!_ All he could do was think that he was in for a rough year. Especially since he had an odd vision of Ron enlisting him to help screen Ginny from any potential suitors.

While Harry had conducted his examination, he in turn had been given the once-over by his oldest school-mate and his younger sister. Harry had grown, almost to the height Ron had been _before _the holidays, and had filled out quite a bit. He no longer had that look that hovered on the borderline of starvation, he actually looked like he got fed regularly and got plenty of sleep. Harry was tanned and fit-looking, and both of them approved, though their approval took widely different paths.

Ginny could feel herself fighting down a blush. After all, she was over him, had dated other boys, and even though she had been winding Ron up about Dean on the trip back from Hogwarts, he had asked her out before the train left. They'd been exchanging letters over the break, but she hadn't quite made up her mind whether or not to accept. Now, here was Harry. For some reason, the words _Quidditch Sex God_ suddenly appeared in her mind, almost causing her to burst out laughing, and making the blush much harder to fight down. Harry was one of the most oblivious boys on the planet when it came to girls, though he would probably notice this year after having to wade through the pools of drool that would be sure to spring up wherever he went that had nearby girls. She shook her head, and watched as Ron again approached Harry.

Ron could only approve of Harry's improved appearance. He looked... _alive._ That was the only way he could describe it. The face was still slightly guarded, but that would always be part of Harry, just as a curious openness even within that shell would always be there. Part of him had been worried by how Harry was coping with Sirius's death, but it seemed to him like he was fine. He walked up to him, drawing him into a back-slapping hug. "Well, Harry, the time has come. You are no longer the midget of the Gryffindor Boys."

The three burst out laughing, and Harry punched Ron in the arm as they broke apart. "Come on, you two, I'll take you up to your rooms. Same as last year, pretty much. Only the house has changed, not where everything is." Picking up some of the bags that remained on the floor, he led the way out of the kitchen and up to the second floor.

The first stop was what was now Ron's room. Harry dropped the bag of Ron's things that he picked up, and turned to see his friend looking around the room with a slightly confused look on his face. "What's wrong, mate?"

"Where's your bed?" Ron asked, a puzzled frown appearing on his face. Harry laughed, and pointed in the direction of his room.

"Got my own room, don't I? Are you going to come in, or do I need to push you out of the way so I can drop Ginny's stuff in her room?" Ron smirked at him in a challenge. "Is that so, Mister Weasley? Think you can take me on now? Well, we'll have to see about that!" Harry dropped his shoulder and dove up from the ground, the two meeting solidly in the doorway. Ron almost fell over, due to the fact his trunk was practically under his legs, and Harry came stumbling out of the room, almost colliding into the opposite wall.

Ginny tutted, and swept onto her own room, leaving the two boys chuckling at each other. Harry brought himself up off the wall, and turned back to Ron. "Come up to my room after you've settled in. I think you'll like my room. Pretty nice, it is." With a wink, he left Ron to drag his trunk in and dropped into the girl's room.

He was barely in the doorframe when he was hit with some soft flying object. Surprise accounted for his lack of reaction, and he could see Ginny sniggering at him, before she blasted him with a question.

"Why has Ron got his own room, and Hermione and I are still sharing?" Standing with her hands on her hips, she glared at him in mock-anger. Pretending to quail before her, Harry bent down to pick up the pillow, and dropped it along with Ginny's bag on one of the beds. Then, bowing deeply, he spoke in a servile tone.

"Because, Miss Ginny, I get my own room, hence Master Ron gets his own room, while you have to continue to share with Miss Hermione. We is sorry for the trouble!" The last sentence he added in the high-pitch tone of a house-elf, which had Ginny giggling a bit. He bowed again, and began to back out the door. "After you've finished settling in, do you want to join Ron and me in my room? It's just down the hall."

Ginny nodded, still giggling at his house-elf impersonation(which he didn't honestly think was _that_ funny) and Harry left her alone to settle in. Returning to his own room, he picked up the domestic charms book, placing back into the bookshelf before picking up _The Marauders Guide._ He started to flick his way through it, and soon happened across something that explained one of the rules in the Prefect list. _Wow, they got a new rule added in. I wondered who got the inflatable sheep? I don't think my dad or Sirius would have had easy access to the Muggle world during the holidays, was it Remus or Wormtail?_

Harry was snapped out of his pondering by a knocking on his door. Looking down at his watch, he noted a full half-hour had passed since the Weasley's had arrived. Calling out for the person at the door to come in, he tapped the _Guide _with his wand, returning it to its blank state. The door opened, and Ron's jaw dropped as he looked around the room.

"Blimey Harry! Where did this come from? _When_ the hell did it come from? And... are those our chairs from the common room?" Ron walked over to the chairs and ran his hand along the back of his. "Bloody hell! These _are_ our chairs from the common room? How'd ya swing that mate?" Collapsing into his seat, Ron was looking in amazement at Harry, who was laughing at his reaction.

"Well," Harry began, calming down, "Sirius made this my room after Christmas, began working on it then. The chairs, well... we have Dobby to thank for that. For some reason, Dumbledore gave me them, Dobby having picked them out. Once we're back at Hogwarts, they'll be taken back to the common room, and when we come back here next summer they'll be here again. Or so Remus told me."

"Wow..." Ron sighed, leaning back into his seat with wide eyes. He looked around, noting the crammed bookshelf and the desk, along with the giant bed and the wardrobe. The only other item of furniture, apart from the chairs and the little table in between them, was Hedwig's cage. And the room was just so... Gryffindor. Scarlet and Gold. Fitting, in a way, Ron thought.

The two sat silently for a moment, before Harry leant forward. "So, how did you do on your OWLs?" he asked.

"I did okay... better than Fred and George, at least. O in Defence, E's in Transfiguration and Care of Magical Creatures, A's in Herbology, Potions, Divination, Charms and Astronomy, and P in History of Magic. Overall, got eight OWLs. Almost as good as Charlie!" Ron said, grinning at doing so well with the exams. "How about you, Harry? How was the damage on your end?"

"O's in Care of Magical Creatures and Potions, E's in Charms, Herbology and Transfiguration, A in Astronomy, P in Divination and a D in History. Apparently, my Defence score was so good that I would have gotten more than an O, but since you can't get higher, I had to take it as well. Eleven OWLs overall." Harry saw the look of disbelief on Ron's face. "Yeah, I know, Potions! I got an O! Not a full O, got an E in the practical, but still!"

Ron's mouth moved soundlessly, before he seemed to gather himself together and actually produce noise. "You... you aren't going to... _continue_ with Potions, are you?" he asked softly, almost dreadingly. Harry put on a sombre look, and nodded slowly. "But why, Harry? No more greasy git! Why put yourself voluntarily in his presence for the extra two years? Why?"

Harry scrunched up his face, laughing at the expression on Ron's face. "Merlin, Ron, you make it sound like I'm heading into my death! NEWT Potions is very important for being an Auror, mate. Even though I'm not quite sure that's what I want to do anymore, it still opens a lot of doors for other jobs. Besides, he can't really doing anything about it, I made it into his class far and square, he has to accept that I have some skill with potion-making." Harry finished, voice filled with reason. Ron continued to look horrified, and Harry burst out laughing. "What is it this time, Ron?"

"You... you... Hermione... sound like Hermione... scary... oh no, it's contagious!" Ron stammered out, before burying his hands in his face. Harry turned to Ginny, and they both shared looks of amusement before laughter overcame them. Harry got up, and came around to pat Ron on the shoulder.

"There there, Ron, it's not all that bad." Ron merely groaned, setting the other two off again.

Once the laughter had died down a bit, Ginny pointed over at the parchments on his desk. "What are those, Harry? You don't have homework do you? I mean, I didn't think that you got summer homework after the OWLs. I don't remember Bill, Charlie, Percy or the twins getting any, and Ron certainly hasn't done anything. What have you been up to?" she asked, and went to pick them up.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just new Defence spells, for the DA and all, things I'm hoping to teach them next year. Basically, that's all I did this summer. What about you lot, what have you gotten up to?" Harry asked. Ron snapped his mouth shut, and his eyes slowly returned from their widened state back to normal.

"Again... work... summer... not homework... actually working..."

Turning away from Ron and ignoring him, he raised an eyebrow at Ginny, who was grinning at Ron again. She shifted in her seat for a bit, before beginning to speak. "Well, basically we've been stuck in the Burrow for the month, with Mum going on and on and on about the Department. Occasionally Fred and George drop around and ask us to help them in their store. You should see it, Harry, it's awesome! They've done so much with it already, and the amount of customers they get is unbelievable! Word seems to have really spread about their escape last year, and all the things that happened afterward. And to think Mum was angry with them, it was the best possible advertising they could have got." she said, almost bouncing with excitement.

"Yeah! Although, there is a downside to working with them. Product testing" The two siblings looked at each other and shared a wince, echoed by Harry as well. "But even then, they're pretty good to work for. It was a lot of fun, just getting out of the house. I mean, they even paid us! Well, they offered to, but I turned them down, said since they were family, I just wanted store credit." Ron was grinning, oddly reminiscent of the twins infamous "grin of doom" as Harry had heard Ron himself call it. Ginny also had the grin on her face, although a much toned down version.

"I wasn't so discriminating. I wanted some spending money for this year. But I didn't say no to the things they offered as bonuses as well!" Harry grinned as an evil twinkle entered the youngest Weasley's eye. "It's going to be an interesting year, to be sure. Fred and George are going to be offering a discount to Hogwart's students during the next few weeks. I think they're trying to get Filch to ban the products before they even get to the school!" The three laughed at this. It didn't seem likely, but what an enormous boost it would be to sales... having all your products banned before they were even first used. Talk about advertisement!

As the laughter trailed off, the door to Harry's room was flung open, and the figure in it threw itself towards them. Half-starting, with his wand already halfway out before he found himself staring down at a bundle of bushy brown hair, enclosed in a crushing hug. Looking down in shock, he could barely make out the stream of words flowing out of the girl's mouth. He heard a soft snicker, and glanced at Ron, who had his hand up over his mouth.

"Ah... Hermione... would you mind... letting me go... need to breathe..." Harry gasped out, which caused Hermione to gasp in shock and suddenly let go of him. Rubbing his sides, he heard her quickly babble an apology, before she exclaimed and shot off, this time at Ron. Now it was Harry's turn to snigger into his hand, as Ron went almost as red as his hair as Hermione took him in a similarly crushing hug. Soon Hermione released him, and tackled Ginny, who managed to respond with as much enthusiasm. The two boys shook their heads in unison, and shared a look. _Girls. Mental._

Harry righted his chair, which he'd tipped over, and sat back down as Hermione and Ginny stopped their hug. "Not that I'm exactly complaining or anything, Hermione, but... what's with the enthusiastic greeting and all? It's only been a month, after all!" Harry said, and watched as a faint blush crossed her face. Now that he could actually see her, he noticed that she'd been somewhere with plenty of sun. Either that, or lots of time in a solarium, which he didn't think she'd be caught dead in. She was tanned, and looked... well, vibrant was one word that came out of nowhere for Harry. _Must have had a really good holiday then..._

"Sorry Harry, I just had a really good holiday, got a lot done, did lots of reading, spent a lot of time in the sun... it was really really good!" Her voice raced with excitement, and she was grinning, when she suddenly seemed to be yanked on a chain. Her grin faded, and she almost seemed mortified at something. "Gods, Merlin, Harry, I'm sorry, I must be really insensitive, pulling a Ron on you like that, going on about how good my holidays were after-"

Harry stood up and held a hand up, palm facing her. "Stop Hermione. It's okay. Don't worry about. I haven't had the best holiday, but...well, that's no reason for you not to have enjoyed your own. I'm fine, really. Not good, but fine." An awkward silence sprung up, the four exchanging nervous looks. Harry sat back down, and gestured for Hermione to sit as well. "So... where did you go?"

Hermione sat on the hand-rest of Ginny's seat, and began telling them about her holiday. "Well, first I just spent some time with my parents, and then we went to Majorca for two weeks! Purely a Muggle vacation, but I still went to the wizarding quarter there, spent some time looking through the bookshops" mutual eye rolls from the boys "but mainly just relaxed. I couldn't really do all that much, my parents kept yanking books out of my hands! They wanted me to do nothing, they actually hid my school supplies from me. I mean, that's unbelievable! Hiding away my things like that!" Again, eye rolls from the boys, to which Hermione responded by poking her tongue out at them, which had them and Ginny laughing at her. "After that, we came home, and I spent some more time with them just in the house. And today, I came here! So, what have all of you been doing?"

They spent the next few minutes re-hashing their stories, Harry and Ginny going first, before Ron told his story. When he got to the part about getting prank material from the twins in exchange for working there, Hermione clucked disapprovingly. "Honestly, Ron, you're a prefect! What do you think your going to do with that stuff? You can't exactly use it, can you?"

Ron grinned broadly. "Ah, but that is not so, my dear Hermione! I have resigned myself from that position of burden, handing it over to some other poor sap to be chosen by McGonagall. I am now free, free, free!" Ron had jumped out his seat when he began talking, bowing floridly and continuing to grin broadly. Hermione's jaw gaped, and Harry, Ron and Ginny all laughed at the incoherent noises coming out of her mouth.

"But... but... but why?" she managed to ask. Ron sobered himself up, and sat back down.

"Well... to be honest, I wasn't much of prefect, was I? I wasn't doing very much, I didn't enjoy the extra tasks, and although it was nice being in the position... I'd much rather focus on Quidditch and my homework. You know, the most important thing in the world, and the thing which-I-have-to-do-or-you'll-nag-me-to-death." Ron grinned after he finished the last statement.

"Speaking of Quidditch, Ron, McGonagall was here earlier, wanted to have a word with me. She gave me this, said to hand it on to you later!" Harry dug the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain's badge out of his pocket, and handed it to Ron, who's jaw dropped. Ginny jumped up, almost screaming, and gathered Ron into a hug, closely followed by Hermione, while Harry laughed softly to himself.

Now it was Ron's turn to croak out "But... but... but why? How?"

Harry locked eyes with Ron, whose eyes slowly started to lose their shocked look. "Ron, you're the best man for the job. Katie already turned it down, Kirke and Sloper are barely adequate as Beaters, let alone Captains, Ginny doesn't seem the sort to be captain, at least not yet" he said, and ducked the pillow which suddenly came flying towards his head "and me... well, I think I've got enough of my plate already. Like I said, I'm going to be keeping the DA going, and McGonagall gave me your prefect badge. And, like I told McGonagall, your Quidditch-mad, the one who beat her giant chess set _in your first year_, and the Keeper is always a better spot than Seeker for the Captain. It might interfere with me catching the Snitch, after all." Harry again dodged a pillow, only to smack right into another one, a whole volley having mysteriously been launched his way. "What?"

"You're the new Prefect!"


	7. Chapter 7 Dreams and Revelations

New chapter! Sorry about the delay to anyone who actually _reads_ this, but... I'll explain at the bottom.

* * *

"_You're the new Prefect!"_

The rest of the holidays passed quickly for the four Gryffindors, and they were soon approaching a close. Harry continued to make his lists, now with Hermione helping him when she wasn't busy helping Ginny with her summer work, or nagging Ron about anything and everything under the sun. Soon, Harry had a large list of spells to teach the D.A., and he moved onto other things.

"Why the bloody hell are you working on _Potions_, Harry? Can't you wait till we get back to school to inflict that stuff upon yourself!" Ron said as he threw himself down into the chair next to Harry. He looked up from the Potions text he was reading, and watched as Ron flipped open the pages of the Quidditch book and began to intently thumb his way through it.

Shaking his head, Harry went back to his reading as he replied. "Because, Ron, if you think Snape is going to go easy on me for one second, your more delusional than Malfoy thinking he could ever beat me in a duel. He's going to be trying his hardest to kick me out of class, and considering it's the NEWTs, he can do so rather easily if I don't at least try and stay ahead of him. So, for now, I read!"

"Oh… well, if it's to spite that greasy git, then I _suppose_ it's okay. I'm just thankful that I don't have to take it anymore." The two read on in silence, only broken by the turning of the pages as one studied and the other strategized.

The library door swung open silently, and a short figure quietly slipped inside. It waited for a few seconds, and then began a slow, roundabout advance towards the two teenage boys, taking its time to not make any noise and stay out of view of both of them. Slowing reaching into its pockets, it drew out an item and a wand. When the figure had made it within a few steps of the two readers, the figure tapped its wand to the item, and flung it towards them.

Harry dove to the ground the second the item was thrown, and therefore only Ron was turned bright purple with electric blue and orange spots. He blinked down at himself for a second, before he roared, leaping out of his chair to chase down the fleeing figure, the long red hair identifying it as the youngest of the Weasley siblings, Ginny. Harry remained on the floor, curled up from laughter. The sounds of the pursuit could still distantly be heard, mainly Ron's shouted promises of vengeance most dire, when Hermione joined him in the library and closed the door.

"Honestly, those two. I wish Fred and George had never come up with that idea." The idea she was referring to was the brilliant (or so Ron and Harry thought, Hermione and Mrs Weasley believed otherwise) idea of giving Ron, Ginny and Harry access to the latest lines of pranks, before they were fully tested. They called it beta-testing, something they said they'd overheard some Muggles talking about when they'd been wandering around in Muggle London one day, so they'd appropriated the term for their own use. They'd assured the others that these pranks had been tested to the point where they were _mostly_ certain of the side-effects, and that the whole thing was easily reversible, but they wanted to test them for use 'in the field' so to speak. This, of course, had triggered a minor war between Ron and Ginny, and also between Harry and Remus, the siblings one being the more overt. Still, it had become a common sight to see any of the four with some symptoms of a new Wheeze affecting them, though Remus often cancelled the effects as soon as he could, which had the other three complaining about how the under-age magic laws were rubbish.

"Don't worry about, Hermione" Harry said, dusting himself off as he got up off the floor, "they're just letting off some steam. And let Mrs Weasley yell at them if anyone is going to." Sitting back down, Harry took the Potions text and started reading from where he had left off. He heard her wander off amongst the bookshelves, before she came back and sat down in one of the nearby chairs with a huge book.

Ron wandering back in, muttering under his breathe. The colours were already fading from the prank, so he sat down and went back to reading his book. Harry watched for a second as he pulled some parchment from out of his pocket, and began to note down something from the book, pulling a quill from another pocket. A few minutes later, Ginny slunk in as well, carrying a textbook along with some parchment. She sat down and started to work, and the four sat there silently for some time.

A few hours later, the cry of dinner made Ron and Harry's heads snap up, and they almost immediately dropped their books and headed downstairs, almost getting jammed in the doorway. The two girls followed more sedately after them, laughing at their behaviour. Dinner was quickly over, and the four were sitting at the table over the last of the dessert when the front door slammed open. Mrs Black began screaming, and the four drew their wands and pointed them towards the door. When the screaming quickly stopped, Harry cautiously advanced to the door, and carefully opened it up a fraction. He sighed in relief, and swung the door open fully. A few members of the Order of the Phoenix stood in the hallway, looking like they'd been in the middle of a savage storm. He waved to Tonks, who waved back, before he moved back into the dining room. "Weather must have changed, they all look fine, just a bit weather-worn." The others sighed in relief, and went back to their desserts.

Soon, Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt joined them in the dining room, both bitterly complaining about the weather, Tonks in particular. Her hair was even wilder than usual, continuously in motion between colours as she voiced her discontent, and even changing in length sometimes, which just seemed to make it worse. She shook her head in disgust, only to fling water at everyone in the room as her incredibly long hair went everywhere, to cries of "Bloody hell Tonks!"

The metamorphagus blushed before pulling herself to her full height and sending a glare around the room. As everyone sat down around the kitchen, her hair shrunk back to its normal length, though the colours kept rotating quickly. Again the portrait of Mrs. Black began screaming as the front door banged open again, more Order of the Phoenix members pouring in through the door, shaking off the rain and moving into the kitchen quickly. Soon the kitchen was full, and the youngsters were hustled out by the Weasley matriarch, protesting as they went.

The four stood outside the kitchen briefly, before making their way back up the stairs to the library to continue the reading that dinner had interrupted. While last summer, they would have made some effort to listen in on the Order meetings, this summer they didn't bother. The only news the Order usually had was routine surveillance information on Dark activities. The Death Eaters and Voldemort had been largely silent, only the occasional Muggle disappearance taking place. Even though the Dementors had already left Azkaban Prison, the Death Eaters captured at the Department of Mysteries were still securely locked up. Harry and the others could only assume that it was the calm before the storm.

A couple of hours later, the shrieking of the portrait heralded the ending of the Order meeting, and surely enough a few minutes later Mrs. Weasley came to huddle them along to their bedrooms. Harry yawned and tiredly waved to Ron and the girls as he headed for his own bed, quickly running through his Occulmency exercises before falling into a deep sleep. Unfortunately, it wasn't to remain that way for long.

_Harry felt himself flying around the countryside, before he suddenly slammed into a room, the flickering of the light from the fireplace and the candles telling him it wasn't a Muggle dwelling. He looked around, and could only see shadows along the plain stone walls. Sweeping his gaze along the walls again, he noticed something beginning to emerge from the shadows._

_"My loyal Death Eaters" he said, waving his pale skeletal hand out in front of himself, "now that our guest has arrived, we can begin our meeting in earnest. Wormtail, come to me now!" As one of the figures, now clearly definable as Death Eaters in their black cloaks and white masks, came scurrying towards him, Harry realised with dawning horror what was happening. **A vision! But that's not possible, I've been practicing…**_

_He was interrupted by a dry chuckle. "Potter, Potter, Potter. I must admit, you have made some progress in protecting your thoughts, but that doesn't mean I can't draw you out when I **want** you to come. But now, we come to the reason **why** I want you here." Voldemort grabbed Pettigrew's left arm, rolled up the sleeve and pressed his fingers to the Dark Mark._

_"As you are by now no doubts aware, there was a prophecy made around the time you were born about the one who could defeat me, Potter. And at the time I came after you and your family, it was thought to be one of two boys, yourself… and Neville Longbottom. Now, I still don't know what the prophecy said, and seeing as how you are too heavily guarded to strike at easily, I thought I would eliminate the other possibility."_

_Harry felt himself go cold. Voldemort had turned to face the door which he had had his back to, and watched as a small group of Death Eater's approached, two carrying something between them. Harry felt his stomach clench up as he realised it was a body. But… that couldn't be **Neville.** For one thing, it looked too… old. And it seemed Voldemort had noticed the same thing, as his wand suddenly appeared in his hand and his voice dropped to a lethal hiss._

_"Who is this? Where is the Longbottom boy?" he demanded as the group of Death Eaters cowered, the two carrying the body dropping it to the floor. One began to slink forward, saying, "Forgive us, master-"_

_"**Crucio!"**_

_As the Death Eater screamed and tossed around in pain, Voldemort and Harry looked over the other Death Eaters. The ones who had entered the door were all now lying completely prostrate. Lifting the curse, they watched as the Death Eater slowly recovered, and waited for him to speak._

_"My Lord… we were unable to capture the boy. Resistance from him and the rest of his family was significantly stronger than was anticipated, and we only managed to get this man, the boy and his grandmother fled the scene using Portkeys. We are sorry, master, we failed you." The Death Eater had crawled his way forward during his speech, and now he grovelled at Voldemort's feet. Harry could feel Voldemort pause to consider what he was going to do next, before he again hissed out the Cruciatus, this time directing it at all the figures in the group. Harry desperately tried to pull away from the vision, only to be surprised when he began to float away from the scene. The last thing he saw was the lack of reaction the body that the Death Eaters had brought in had when Voldemort swung his wand over it, the Cruciatus still spilling forth from it._

Harry awoke suddenly, lurching up out of the bed and almost slamming his head into Ron and Hermione's, both of who hovered over him with concern etched into their faces. He could see Remus and the elder Weasleys further back, with Ginny just running into the room with what looked like a wet cloth of some sort. He slumped back down onto his bed, sucking in deep breaths as the questions began to flow from the two above him. Nodding gratefully to Ginny who had placed the cloth on his aching scar, he focused in on Remus first.

"Tell Dumbledore, Remus, thatNeville's house was attacked. He and his grandmother made it out, but beyond that, I don't know what happened to them." Remus nodded tightly and left the room, even as Ron, Hermione and Ginny gasped at the mention of Neville's name, especially in conjunction with the news of an attack on his house. They backed off a bit, and Harry edged himself into a seated position against the headboard of his bed.

"Harry, what happened? Did you do your Occulmency exercises? What did you see?" Hermione asked him, concern written all over her face and voice. Harry looked over at her, and grimly smiled.

"Apparently, that isn't quite enough. Oh, it will stop me just being pulled into the visions, but apparently Voldemort can pull me in if he wants me to see something. I think he was going to torture and kill Neville, and keep me along for the ride just to torment me. Seems he didn't count on heavy resistance though, and Neville and his gran managed to get away. They got someone else though, but I think he was already dead… there was no reaction when Voldemort hit the whole crowd with Crucio, not even a twitch. That was about when I tried to pull away again, and it worked this time." Harry said, almost matter of factly.

"How do you know it wasn't a false one, like…" she began again, before trailing off guiltily. Harry looked her in the eyes, and shook his head.

"Why would he want to send me a vision of just how incompetent his Death Eaters can be? What would be the point?"

"Indeed, Harry, what would be the point?" Dumbledore swept into the room, his eyes gently twinkling. Harry went to speak, but the old wizard waved him quiet. "Mister Longbottom is safe, along with his grandmother. They are currently at Saint Mungo's, where Madam Longbottom is being treated for a broken ankle. Mister Longbottom is unharmed, and will be joining us here shortly. Now, can everyone leave Harry and myself alone for a few moments?" He looked around the room, fixing his gaze on each of them as they moved past him and out the door. Dumbledore moved to stand next to Harry's bed, and locked eyes with him. "Now, Harry, tell me what happened from your point of view."

Harry described what he had felt had happened during the vision, while Dumbledore nodded and gently tugged at his beard during the recounting. Once Harry had finished describing it in detail, Dumbledore began to speak. "Harry, you have made considerable progress on your own with your Occulmency, but I must ask you to resume your training with Professor Snape. Now, before you begin protesting, you will also be doing it with me, but Professor Snape has considerable experience in resisting a Legilimens of Voldemort's capabilities on a regular basis, whereas I have never been in such a situation for any prolonged period of time. The two of you will have to work together on this, and I have already warned him about his behaviour, Harry. I ask that you also watch yourself. I think you agree with me when I say we cannot afford a repeat of last years fiasco between the two of you."

Harry set his jaw, grinding his teeth together. He in no way wanted anything to do with Snape, it was almost bad enough he had to see him during Potions, now he had to go back to Occulmency practice again? Well… at least I know what I'm supposed to be doing this time! He nodded briefly, and almost laughed as Dumbledore let out a relieved sigh. "It's not like I've got any other opinion, sir. I need to be able to stop him from getting into my mind."

"A good attitude Harry, not the best though it will have to do. Now, I will leave you to get some sleep, and I will speak to you again in the morning. Good night." With that, Dumbledore stepped from the room, Harry's faint farewell floating after him. Harry could hear the Headmaster asking the others to return to their beds, as there was nothing more they could do for Harry at the moment, and that he was just off to bring Neville to Grimmauld Place.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny tiptoed back into his room a few minutes later, the three of them sitting on the bed with Harry. He looked up at them all, reading the concern in all of their faces. He shook his head when Hermione opened her mouth to speak, and she shut her mouth and reached a hand out to one of Harry's. They all sat like that for a time, before Harry opened his mouth to speak. "Guys, I guess I should tell you why Neville was attacked tonight…"

He then went on to tell them about how it had been Trelawney who gave the prophecy that had been smashed at the Department of Mysteries, and that it had foretold that the "one with the power to defeat the dark lord" was to be born soon. He also told them how it had been given to Dumbledore while he was interviewing Trelawney for the position of Divinations Professor, at the Hog's Head, and that one of Voldemort's supporters had overheard the first part of the prophecy, enough for it to be narrowed down to two newly-born wizards, Harry and Neville, but had been kicked out before the full prophecy could be heard.

"_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…_ That's what Voldemort's agent heard before he was ejected from the building. There is more to it, but I'm not going to tell you it, other than to say that it confirms that I am the one that the prophecy refers to, and not Neville." Harry had been staring down at his feet for most of the talk, and so was unprepared for the sudden lunges he got from Hermione and Ginny, both who had wrapped their arms around him and could be heard crying softly into Harry's chest. He looked up to see Ron staring at him, eyes wide with shock.

"Girls… its okay, I've kind of come to terms with it since then… I mean, it was a bit much to hear at once, especially after what had just happened… go to bed, I'll speak to you all in the morning, I really want to include Neville in the discussion. Go, get some sleep." Harry gently pried the two girls from their death-grips on his chest, and climbed out of bed to gently herd them out of his room. He turned back to see Ron still sitting on his bed, lost in thought. Helping Ron out of the room, he shut the door after him, but not before Ron blurted something out.

"Bloody hell Harry, you never cop a break do you?"

* * *

To explain: One, I am out of work, and while you would think that would leave plentiful time for writing, alas it is not so. My parents are threatening to kick me out of the house if I don't get a job soon, and deeming my efforts to look (at last count, somewhere near fifty jobs where I am waiting for word back on various things) unacceptable and forcing me to leave the house to go places to look for jobs I do not want to do or am vastly underqualified in.

That, and dad disconnected me from the network, and supervises all my computer time at home, and none of the places I go exactly have internet features without heavy restrictions.

All this means that this is the first time in the two weeks that I've had this written that I've been in a position to update. The next chapter is about... a third complete. And I'm annoyed with this chapter slightly. I hadn't meant for Harry to reveal that much of the prophecy till much later on... but that was all that would fill in the gap. I was going to write about a shock in the Order meeting, but... that's been done. Later y'all!

PS - Does anyone else notice that it says in OOTP that the Dementors have already left Azkaban? Because I know thats a major turning point in some stories... just a little bit of canon knowledge there... ;-)


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